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Copy 2 .UTHENTIC ACCOUNT 



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OF THE 



MURDER OF DR. WHITMAN 



AND OTHER MISSIONARIES, 



By the Cayuse Indians of Oregon, in 1847, 

AND THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THAT HORRIBLE 
CATASTROPHE. 



BY THE VERY REV. J. B. A. 6R0UILLET. 



Magna est Veritas, et prcevalebit.'' 



Second Kdition. 



PORTLAND, OREGON: 
S. J. IVIcCORlVXICK, PXJBLISHER. 

1869. 



AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT 



OP THE 



MUEDEE OF M. WHITMAN 



AND OTHER MISSIONARIES, 



By the Cayuse Indians of Oregon, in 1847, 

AND THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THAT HORRIBLE 
CATASTROPHE. 




BY THE VERY REV. /b. A.^ROUILLET, 

II 



^^ Magna est Veritas^ et prcevalebiC 



Second Kditioii, 



PORTLAND, OREGON: 
S. J. IMcCORMIICK, FXJBLISKER. 

1869. 



^. 



4 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

issued in 1853, has become exhausted; some of the priu- 
cipal witnesses of the Indian massacre at Dr. Whitman's 
station have left the country ; many of them are dead 
— a new community has sprung up in the land. Still 
there are found those amongst us whoso prejudices, 
even at tjiis remote day, are so strong as not to yield be- 
fore the penetrating rays of truth ; whose minds will 
not be satisfied with the unchangeable and irrefutable 
evidence of disinterested witnesses, and whose spleen 
against the Catholic church, and all that pertains to her 
creed, her pastors and her people, findsvcnt in the shape 
of ^' resolutions" without reason,'^ paragraphs without 
point, and anonymous newspaper articles without re- 
sponsibility. 

It being not only impracticable, but distasteful, to the 
author to undertake the task of replying to the open or 
covert attacks thus made upon questions of veracity long 
since settled, ho has included in the present work all the 
evidence relative to the massacre of Dr. Whitman and 
others, by the Cayuse Indians, published in his former 
pamphlet, together with an appendix, wherein will be 
found additional irrefutable evidence which has since 
emanated from sources beyond the suspicion of partial- 
ity, some of which we deem worthy of special reference. 

The Eev. Gustavus Hines, I). D., (extracts from whose 
History of Oregon are given in. the appendix) is an in- 
fluential minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
,and his evidence alone, aside from the testimony adduced 
from numerous other equally reliable sources, should 
bring conviction to the minds of all impartial men, who 
desire to learn the truth of history. Dr. Hines' w.ork 
was first issued in 1850, three years after the lamenta- 

•i-See resolutions adopted by Congregational Assotjiation of Oregon, 
July, 1869. 



THE WHITxMxVN MASSACRE. 5 

blo tragedy at i)r. Whitman's mission ; the vvork has 
passed through several editions, finding its way into ev- 
ery State in the Union, and the author, encouraged by 
the success ^Yhich was justly accorded his first effort, 
has issued a recent work upon the Institutions of Ore- 
gon, yet the truths he published in 1850 have stood un- 
challenged for nearly tv/enty years, showing the remote 
causes which led to the massacre of so many innocent 
people, and clcarl}^ exonerating, the Catholic missiona- 
ries from the foul charge sought to be fastened on them. 

The letter of Sir James Douglas, Chief Factor of the 
Hudson's Bay Co., (who was residing at Yancouver at 
the time of the massacre at Dr. Whitman's station, and 
who upon learning the sad newsiramediatelj^ dispatched 
a large force of their emploj-es, under charge of Peter 
Skeen Ogde-n, to the scene,. for the purpose of prevent- 
ing further atrocities) will also be found in the appendix. 
The opinions so strongly expressed in this letter were 
based upon information received from Mr. Ogden, Mr. 
McBean, clerk at Fort Walla W^alla, (the nearest post 
to the &ceue of the murder) and other reliable gentlemen 
attached to the Hudson's Bay Company. It is thei'efore 
strictly impartial, detailing the circumstances which led 
to the sad catastrophe in plain, Unvarnished language, 
and expressing the united opinions of men well qualified 
by education and years of experience, to judge the Indi- 
an character. 

The evidence adduced by these and other disinterested 
witnesses, together with the facts reite\-ated from the 
former publication, cannot fail of bringing conviction to 
every candid mind, that the murder of Dr. Whitman 
and his associates was premeditated, matured and deter- 
mined upon by the evil-disposed Indians among the Cay- 
usc nation, long before the arrival of the Bishop of 



6 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE 

WalLa Walla and his mission^aries. In proof of this as- 
sertion, we need only recur to the files of the "Oregon, 
American "and Evangelical Unionist," a periodical issued 
during 1848, at Tualatin Plains, in Washington county, 
and edited by Rev. J. S. GrifTm. In the fourth number 
of this periodical we find over the signature of Rev H. H. 
vSpalding an article from which we learn the fact that a 
Kez Perces Indian inquired of him prior to the massacre 
if Dr. Whitman was not killed ; but little attention was 
paid to the question ; Mr. Spalding, however, mentioned 
the matter to Dr. Whitman, Mr. Kimble, and others at 
the station. "TTe considered it a reiteration of what had 
been said for a long time — a ball can j^enetrate your 
body. * ;!c * * rpj^^ Doctor in one of his 

visits had discovered Tamahas (called the murderer from 
having killed several Indians) who had just before lost 
his wife, and who was the person that afterwards, with 
two blows upon the head laid our lamented brother 
bleeding senseless, but not lifeless, upon the floor) in 
rather a suspicious attitude. From that time the Doctor 
had been cautious. But there were no inflammatory 
meetings among the chiefs, as there had often been. For 
instance, when they returned from California, two years 
ago, after the death of the Walla Walla Chief, several 
meetings were held to consider whether Dr. Whitman, 
myself or some other American teacher should be killed 
as a set off for Elijah." 

It must also bo borne in mind that on several occa- 
sions previous to the massacre, the Cayuse Indians had 
made assaults upon and threats against the missionary 
station at Wailatpu, and the ferocity of the character 
of the Ca3^use8 is clearly established by Sir James Doug- 
las, who knew them well, and who declares them to be 
"the most treacherous and intractible of all the Indian 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 7 

tribes in this country, and who had on many former oc- 
casions alarmed the inmates of the mission by their tu- 
multuous proceedings and ferocious threats." 

In order to show more fully the precarious position 
occupied by the white settlers ia Oregon, previous to the 
year of the Whitman massacre, we insert an extract 
from the message of Governor George Abernethy to the 
Legislative Assembly of Oregon Territory, convened at 
Oregon City, December, 1847 : 

'' Our relations with the Indians becomes every year 
more embarrassing. They see the white man occupying 
their land, rapidly filling up the country, and they put 
in a claim for pay. They have been told that a chief 
would come out from the United States, and treat with 
them for their lands ; they have been told this so often 
that they begin to doubt the truth of it ; at all events, 
they say, ' he will not come until we are all dead, and 
then what good will blankets do us? We want some-. 
thii:|g now.' This leads to trouble between the settler 
and the Indians about him. Some plan should be de- 
vised by which a fund can be raised, and presents made 
to the Indians of sufficient value to keep, them quiet un- 
til an agent arrives from the United States." 

-^ven as early as 1835, some of the missionaries settled 
in Oregon and engaged in civilizing the Indians, were in 
danger of being murdered in consequence of the death 
of one of the Indian children attending school. The 
circumstances were as follows: "A boy whose name 
was Ken-o-teesh. belonging to the Si-le-Iah tribe, was re- 
'ceived into the mission in April, and died on the 19th of 
the following August. A few days after, his brother de- 
termined to seek revenge for the death of Ken-o-teesh, 
by taking the life of Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepard."* 

•*lliaes' History of Oregon, p. 14. 



8 THE WIIITMxlN MASSACRE. 

This fact illustrates the If.clian creed of '' life for life, °^ 
and proves that it required no " priestlj^" influences to 
urge them on. to murder, inasmuch as no Catholic mis- 
sionaries had then arrived in the Willamette valley. 

Again, in 1836, "We-lap-tu-lekt, an Indian of the Cay- 
use tribe-j" went to the Willamette mission, "where he 
placed his two sons, desiring to have them educated. 
He had traveled with the missionaries, and desired them 
to settle in his country, but they^uot acceding to his re- 
quest, he determined upon bringing his family from east 
of the Cascades to the Willamette mission. This he ac- 
complished early in September, 1836. • Some of his chil- 
dren attended school, and appeared to be making rapid 
progress; but in February, 1837, his family began to 
suffer with disease. Two of his children died in quick 
succession, and a third was fast sinking with a burning 
fever. We-lap-tu-lekt was frightened, and supposed that 
all his children would die, if he did not leave the place. 
He accordingly fled in a canoe, but just as he lauded at ' 
Fort Vancouver, on his way to his mountain home, an- 
other of his children died. "These repeated deaths in 
one family,'' remarks Hev. Mr. Hines, from whose histo- 
ry of Oregon we glean these facts, " and the fact that 
most of the mission children were sick, and some had 
died but -recently, began to create a prejudice in the 
minds of the Indians against having their children re- 
main with the mission, and after this it was not so easy 
to procure and retain them." 

So that as early as 1836, eleven 3'ears before the mas- 
sacre, « pr^jVZfce was created in the minds of the Indi- 
ans against the American' missonaries, and that, too, 
among the very tribe that afterwards conlmittcd the 
brutal murders. Of course, the fact of children dying 

fThe same tribe that murdered Dr.^ Whitman. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 



natural deaths could have no weight in forming opinions 
in the minds of intelligent, civilized men, but, with poor 
untutored savages, who could see no tangible cause for 
such unprecedented mortality, among their children, 
particularly when placed under the care of white men, 
the case was entirely altered, and in the terrible rcven^% 
which they afterwards per^^etrated upon the Whitman 
station, they doubtless sought to avenge the deaths of 
all their kindred and children who had perished, as they 
imagined, through the instrumentality of the whites,dur- 
ing long years of association. 

Again, in 1838, wo are told by the Eev. Dr. Hines that 
'• a fearful mortality " raged among the children that at- 
tended the Methodist mission school. About one-tfdrd 
of all the children that had been received had died — a 
ratio of mortality that was almost nnprecedented in the 
annals of any country undergoing the change from bar- 
barism to civilization. 

Still again in 1842, a fatal disease carried away many 
of the children, others ran awaj^, and- some v/ere stolen 
by their parents, until but few were left, and these with- 
erino; under the influence ot the fatal scrofula. 

Finally, we find that in 18-13, the Indians, not only of 
the Willamette valley, but those of Eastern Oregon, 
were seriously disaffected towards the whites. Mr. 
Hines, treating on this subject, says; 

'' About this time the Indians became quite trouble- 
some in various parts of the country. At Wailatpu, on 
the Walla Walla river, where a missionary station had 
been established by Dr. Marcus Whitman, they took ad- 
vantage of the Doctor's absence and broke into the house 
in the dead of night, and even into the bed-chamber of 
Mrs. Whitman, who, with much difficulty, escaped from 
their hands." 



10 THE WIIITMx^N MASSACRE. 

The reader vtiII bear in mind that this outrage upon 
Mrs. Whitman was perpetrated by the Cayuse Indians, 
nearly four years previous to the arrival of Bishop Blan- 
chet, the author, and the other Catholic missionaries at 
Fort Walla Walla. 

Such experience as illustrated in the foregoing ca- 
lamities was not 53alculated to awaken a very warm love 
for Amei'ican missionaries in the breasts of savages who 
came for the first time in contact with white men, and 
found in such union almost certain death to their 
children. 

True, all the Indian children who died through the 
"fearful mortality '^ which raged in the Willamette mis- 
sion school were not of the Oayusc nation ; but these 
deaths, taken in connection with the " fearful mortality " 
which subsequently carried off whole tribes of Indians 
east of the Cascade mountains, had doubtless created 
prejudices in the minds of the Cayuse and other Indian 
tribes which were immeasurably unfavorable to the 
American missionaries. It will be borne in mind that 
the Cayuses, allied with other tribes, threatened the de- 
struction of the whites prior to 1842. Again in that 
year they threatened to massacre the whites settled in 
Oregon in consequence of suspicions which were im- 
planted in the minds of the Indians that the whites de- 
signed '• to destroy them and take possession of their 
country.^' The arrival of a large party of emigrants 
about this time, and the sudden departure of Dr. Whit- 
man for the United States, with the avowed intention of 
bringing back with him as many as he could enlist for 
Oregon, served to hasten them to the above conclusion. 
Thus the Indians saw 'in Dr. Whitman the chief cause of 
bringing so many whites into their country, for the pur- 
pose, as they imagined, of destroying their liberties and 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 11 

their lives, and of occupying their lands, and this con- 
viction in their minds, " strong as holy writ," led them, 
in conjunction with other causes, real and imaginary, 
to perpetrate a foul murder, that fell with double force 
upon the hearts of the Catholic missionaries, from the 
fact not only of the horror it created in their minds, the 
loss of their property, which the Indians burned when 
they abandoned their mission, but it also endangered 
their own lives, and was the cause for many years of 
preventing the Catholic missionaries from planting the 
standard of the cross among other Indians adjacent to 
the Cayuse nation, who passed away in the same pagan- 
ism in which they lived, in consequence of no Catholic 
missionaries being amongst them. 

A charge has also been brought against the Catholic 
missionaries that they carried arms and amunition to 
hostile Indian bands. This is not only untrue, but the 
charge is prompted through the basest feelings of 
malice, and made with the hope of prejudicing the Cath- 
olic cause. The facts in the case are simply these : The 
Catholic missionaries who had established themselves 
among the Flat-heads, Cour-de-alenes and other Indiana 
of the mountains, were annually in the habit of visiting 
the settlements for the purpose of laying in their sup- 
plies for the ensuing year. Among the more necessary 
articles indispensible to those who live in the region of 
the Eocky Mountains, is powder and shot, to be used in 
procuring game during the long and dreary winter re- 
gions where they have to live sometimes six months in 
succession upon venison or other game. The Indians 
have, since 1840, been well supplied with arms; but 
their supplies of amunition would become exhausted, 
and it became a question of life and death — not only to 
the missionary himself, but also to those with whom he 



12 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

resided, and all the Indians in his vicinity — whether he 
returned from his annual trip with or without amu- 
nition. So great was the necessity for amunition among 
the Indians, and so well were their necessities in this re- 
spect understood by the early settlers in Oregon, that 
Governor Abernethy — in his message to the Legislative 
Assembly which convened early in 1849 — asked the 
Legislature to repeal an act which had been passed 
at a previous session, forbiding persons selling or con- 
veying arms and amunition to Indians, and gave as 
his motive for this request the following cogent reasons : 
" As many of the Indians live by hunting, and a small 
quantity of powder aud Jead is actually necessary to 
provide for their wants, I think the law should be mod- 
ified so as to permit the sale of powder and lead to 
friendly Indians." It was for this purpose — and this 
alone — that the Catholic missionaries included powder 
and lead in their annual supplies — but these supplies 
were intended for their own peaceable Indians — as no 
Catholic missionary — under any circumstance ever con- 
veyed munitions of war to hostile bands of Indians at 
war with American settlers upon American soil. This, 
I hope, finally disposes of this slander which the enemies 
of Catholicity have for years rolled under their tongues 
as a " sweet morsel." 

Finally, this unfortunate massacre stands- in the rec- 
ords of history as another evidence of the unstability 
of the Indian charactei;', especially when operated upon 
by superstitious fears arising from the conviction among 
the Indians that their country, their property, and their 
very existence even, was endangered by the influx of 
Americans. It is characteristic of Indian justice to con- 
sider as forfeited the life of the Doctor or " Medicine 
Man" who fails to eifect a cure, or whose patient dies 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE, 13 

whilst under his treatment. In this connection it will 
be borne in mind that the wife' of Tamahas (the mur^ 
derer) who killed Dr. Whitman, died whilst under the 
Doctor's treatment a short time previous to the massaqre, 
and farther, it i^ an established fact that Dr. Wliitman 
had discovered Tamahas in a suspicious attitu(Je, a few 
weeks anterior to his death. These facts establish a 
predetermination ou the part of Tamahas and his accom-. 
plices in his murderous work, and were doubtless among 
the principal causes which led to the horrible butchery 
which followed. 

The candid reader will also bear in mind that of all 
the Indians who imbrued their hands in the irnnocent 
blood of the Presbj^terian missionaries, not one among 
them prof essed the Catholic faith, and in order to exhibit 
the character of the Cayuse Indians, we need only refer 
to the opinion expressed by a correspondent of the 
Oregon American, who says : 

" The Cayuses had become a praying people. In 
almost every lodge the family altar was erected.- No 
doubt on the morning of the bloody 29th the murderers 
were scrupulous to observe their morning devotions — • 
again at evening, while the dead bodies of the slain lay 
unburied, the food of the fowls of heaven and the beasts 
of the earth. One of the actors of this horrible scene 
was a member of our church, and while he held one of 
the captives as his wife, the sport of his brutal passions, 
he was careful to have morning and evening prayer, 
and to read a portion of the scripture from his book 
which we printed while he was iu our school at Clear 
water."* 

Taking these facts, in connection with other equally 

*A missionary station among the Nez Perces near the present site of 
Fort Lapwai, Idaho, and under charge of Mr. Spalding. 
2 



14 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

important and convincing evidence, no impartial mind 
can be warped into the conclusion that the Catholic mis- 
sionaries were in the remotest degree, responsible for the 
atrocities at Dr. Whitman's mission. Aside from the 
horror which pervades the mind of every christian 
when contemplating the horrible sacrifice of human life, 
the natural current of events even, preclude the possi- 
bility of any collusion between missionaries of one faith, 
and Indians of another. The Catholic missionaries had 
never interfered with the Cayuse Indians under charge 
of Dr. Whitman and his associates. They could have no 
possible influence over them, either through spiritual 
advice or temporal friendship. Bishop Blanchet and the 
other Catholic missionaries arrived at Fort Walla Walla, 
in September, 1847, where they remained until the 28th 
of November, at which time they opened their first mis- 
sion among the Umatilla Indians (not one of whom was 
concerned in the murder) at a distance of twenty-five 
miles from Dr. Whitman's station. At a council of the 
Chiefs of Indian tribes located along the banks of the 
Columbia between the Dalles and Walla Walla, called 
for the purpose of ascertaining the wishes of the several 
chiefs relative to having Catholic missionaries among 
them. Bishop Blanchet had peremptorily refused the 
oifer of some of the Cayuse Chiefs to dispossess Dr, 
Whitman. At a subsequent period, the writer reiterated 
to Tilokaikt (one of the chiefs of the Cayuse nation, who 
had tendered the mission lands) the refusal of the 
Bishop, ^and again rejected the offer. In order to set 
this matter visibly at rest, the writer proceeded at 
once to the camp of the young Chief (a Cayuse In- 
dian who had been converted and who for several 
years had been expecting Catholic missionaries) and 
there entered upon his missionary labors, occupying a 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. i^ 

house that had been erected for the Youno- Chiof u 
gave the missionaries the use of it. Thu "t wiU I; ° 
ce.ved that the Catholic mission was locate ^L^X 
from Dr. Whitman's mission-among Indians som^ of 
whom were already CathoKes, but not one ofTvLnf 
was concerned in the massaerp Ti,„ , 

Whitman „r„u,- ""''"'^ssacie. 1 ho murder of Dr 
Whitman and his associates occured on the 29th of No 
vember, one day after the Catholic mission was com' 
menced. It may here be reasonably asked whL . .' 
influence could the Catholic mission:?es-e:n fso 

whom tl^ " '"""'!' "''"■ " *"'^« «f Indians among 
whonx they never resided, and whose lodges were twen 
ty-five miles distant, to induce them to perpetrate the 
fou murder of thirteen innocent people ?' The fnswer 
IS plam-neither time nor circumsLies could poX 

wrth the Indians who committed the massacre To 
hmk otherwise is not only repugnant to ever.f Ii„ Jof 

christian charity, but of common sense ° 

With these remarks the author presents the present 
volume to the reading public, believing that the perusa 
of Its pages will not only prove interesting to the Z 
eralread<.._contaii:ingas they do a trajc chap eft 
the early history of this coast, and embracing in^Ments 
of frontier ife sufficient to interest the studfnt of h" 

ory-but this little work may also prove its u til I by 
dispelling the atmosphere of prejudice into which Tome 
mmds may have unthinkingly wandered, and briL" 
home to their better nature the pure lighi of hietori^ 

J. B. A. BEOUILLET, V. G. 
Walla Walla, August, 1869. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 



A deplorable event signalised the autumn of the year 
1847 in Oregon, and brought consternation to all hearts. 
The 29th of November, Dr. Marcus Whitman, Presby- 
terian missionary among the Cayuses, his wife and eight 
other Americans, fell victims to the barbarity of the 
Indians, and three others shared the same fate a few 
days afterwards. For a time all the people apprehended 
that the fury of the savages would not stop there, but, 
that after having made new victims of the women and 
children who remained alive at the station, passing from 
tribe to tribe, it would excite suddenly all the neighbor- 
ing Indians and bring them at once upon the Willamette 
settlements. 

The Catholic Bishop of Walla Walla and his clergy, 
stationed in the neighborhood of the place of the disas- 
ter, togethpr with the clerk in charge of Fort Walla 
Walla and some other persons, were however so fortun- 
ate as to quiet by degrees, through their influence, their 
advice and their repeated solicitations, the fury of the 
Indians, and save the lives of the widows and orj^hans, 
until Mr. P. S. Ogden, one of the chief Factors of the 
Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, came up to 
Fort Walla Walla, and having bought them from the 
hands of the Indians, had the consolation and glory of 
bringing them down in safety to the Willamette. The 
efforts both of the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany and of the clergy, had also the good effect of pre- 
venting for a time the Indians from carrying their hos- 
tilities any farther. 



18 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

The causes, both remote and immediate, of the dis- 
aster, were clear, and left no doubts in the minds of un- 
prejudiced persons, who knew the history of these coun- 
tries, and the dispositions, prejudices, and superstitions 
of the Indians. It Avas evident that the ravages caused 
amongst them by the measles and dysentery, together 
with false reports and advices of a vagabond who was 
in the employ of Br. Whitman, were the only motives 
that urged the Indians to that act of atrocity, inclined 
as they were to believe these reports from the suspicions 
and dissatisfaction that they had been for a long time 
entertaining against Dr. "Whitman in particular and the 
Americans in general. 

But a certain gentleman, moved on by religious fanat- 
icism, and ashamed of owing his own life and that of his 
family and friends to some priests, began to insinuate 
false suspicions about the true causes of the disaster — 
proceeded by degrees to make more open accusations, 
and finally declared publicly that the Bishop of Walla 
Walla and his clergy were the first cause and great 
movers of all the evil. The gentleman is the Eev. H. H. 
Spalding, whose life had been saved from the Indians by 
a priest at the. peril of his own. 

His first insinuations were so malicious and their 
meaning so well understood, that Colonel Gilliam and 
his troops, about starting for the purpose of chastising 
the murderers at Wailatpu, said publicly that the priests, 
missionaries of the Cayuses, w^ere deserving death, and 
that they would shoot or hang the first one of them they 
should meet. A letter, however, written to Colonel Gil- 
liam by the Bishop of Walla Walla, and some explana- 
tions given by a priest to him and to the Commissary, 
General J. Palmer, before they started for the upper 
country, satisfied them, and the Colonel declared then 
that "Mr. Spalding could not have spoken so without 
being crazy," and Gen. Palmer said that " he ought not 
to be allowed any more to go among the Indians." A 
relation of the principal circumstances of the awful 
deed, which Colonel Gilliam himself had asked of one 
of the missionaries of the Cayuses, dissipated completely 
his prejudices against the priests, and from that moment 
to his death he did not cease to be one of their best and 
most sincere friends. 



il 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 19 

Hon. P. H. Burnett being aware of the different accu- 
sations made by Mr. Spalding, in his conversation and 
preaching, and of the unfavorable impressions that they 
were producing upon persons ignorant and already pre- 
judiced, asked him in 1848, to give him in writing the 
charges he had made and the testimony which supported 
them, in order that he might see ^vhat means of defence 
the accused could employ. 

That demand was followed sometime afterwards by the 
publication of a letter from Mr. Spalding and of his 
'•' History of the Massacre at Wailatjou" in the Oregon 
American. These writings, intermixed with editorial 
notes in the same sense, contain many grievious accusa- 
tions against the clergy and the Catholics in general. 
Mr. Burnett then began in the Oregon American an 
answer that he intended to pursue, w^hen the cessation 
of the journal obliged him to suspend it. 

Judging then that it w^ould be to the interest of relig- 
ion that the public should be informed of the truth in 
that matter, in order to destroy the bad impressions 
which such atrocious accusations might have made on 
the minds of some persons, I have considered it my duty, 
as a priest, to resume the task of Mr. Burnett and to re- 
store the facts which have been misconstrued by Mr. 
Spalding and others. Such is the origin and the design 
o± this writing. It was prepared in the fall of 1848, but 
circumstances did not allow me to have it published for 
the first time until the year 1853. 

I show first the causes of the massacre of Wailatpu. 
I give next a min,ute journal of the principal events 
that occurred in the Walla Walla country from the arri- 
val of the Bishop and his clergy there until the moment 
they left that country for the Willamette settlements, and 
I conclude by a summary of all the principal charges 
made against the Catholic clergy by Mr. Spalding, the 
Oregon American, and others, up to the month of October, 
1848, with an answer to each of them. 

An appendix has also been added wherein will be 
found many documents confirmatory of the evidence in- 
serted in the body of the work. 



20 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

CHAPTER I. 

The remote and immediate causes which led to the IVJiif- 

man 7nassacre 

That events had occurred prior to the arrival of 
Bishop Blanchet and the other Catholic missionaries at 
"Walla Walla in 1848, which ultimately led to the unfor- 
tunate tragedy at Dr. Whitman's station will appear 
evident to every unprejudiced reader who calmly con- 
siders the following facts : — 

I. Mr. McKinlay, the intimate friend of Dr. Whit- 
man, had been for four or five years in charge of Fort 
Walla Walla. During his stay there, being aware of the 
evil dispositions of the Indians towards the Doctor, he 
warned him very often that he was in danger, that the 
Indians hated him, and that he had better go away, 
because he was afraid they would kill him. After he 
left the Fort he did not cease to advise him every year 
to leave Wailatpu, telling him that if he persisted in 
remaining there, the Indians would certainly kill him 
sooner or later. 

II. Some years ago, prior to 1848, Dr. McLaughlin, 
then Governor of Fort Yancouver and of all the estab- 
lishments of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the 
Rocky Mountains, judging by some difficulties which Dr. 
Whitman had with the Indians, that it was dangerous 
for him to stay any longer among them, wrote to him to 
urge him to leave his mission, at least for some time, and 
to come down to the Willamette, telling him that he 
feared the Indians would kill him if he should persist in 
remaining among them under such circumstances. A 
copy of that letter was inserted in the journal of Fort 
Vancouver. 

III. Mr. R. Newell — agent among the Nez Perces 
Indians — who lived many years with the Nez Perces, 
and who had an opportunity of knowing the Cayuses 
well, often said to Dr. Whitman that he ought to leave 
Wailatpu, because the Indians hated him and would kill 
him. He told me iiimself, speaking of Dr. Whitman 
and Mr. Spalding, that he was astonished they had stood 
so long. " Mr. Spalding would have been killed long 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 21 

ago, said he, if it had not been for his wife, who was 
very much Kked by the Indians." 

IV. Dr. Bayley, a member of the Legislature of the 
Territory, warned in like manner Dr. Whitman, as a 
friend, to clear away from the Cayuses, because if he 
did not they would kill him. 

V. Messrs. J. Douglas and P. S. Ogden, both chief 
Factors of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Van- 
couver, together with the most part of -Dr. Whitman's 
friends, had been for a long time trying every year to 
induce him to come down to the Willamette for his 
safety. 

VI. lu the spring of 1848, Gen. Joel Palmer, the In- 
dian Agent and Commissary G-eneral for the troops, and 
one of three Commissioners appointed to treat for peace 
with the Indians, said in my presence at Fort Walla 
Walla, that he and the other Commissioners had found 
about the Doctor's house many letters which proved that 
even in 1845 he was considered as being in danger. 

VII. Ill treatment had been received at different 
times previously by Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding, Mr. 
Gray and Mr. Smith, as is evident from the statements 
of Messrs. Toupin, Gervais and McKay, that are found 
in the following pages. 

VIII. Mr. Spalding says in his writings : " The 
months of deep solicitude we had, occasioned by the in- 
creasing menacing demands of the Indians for pay for 

their water, their wood, their air, their lands W-e 

have held ourselves ready to leave the country whenever 

the Indians as a body wished it Dr. Whitman twice 

during the last year called the Cayuses together, and 
told them if a majority wished he would leave the coun- 
try at once Dr. Whitman held himself ready to sell 

the Wailatpu Station to the Catholic mission, whenever 

a majority of the Cayuses might wish it When 

they (the Indians) returned from California two years 
ago, after the death of the son of the Walla Walla chief, 
several meetings were held to consider whether Dr. Whit- 
man, myself, or some other American teacher should be 
killed as a set-off for Elijah." 

IX. The same Mr. Spalding said on the 31st of Au- 
gust, 1846, to Dr. Poujade, (see his statement) : " The 



22 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

Indians are getting worse every day for two or three 
years back 3 they are threatening to turn ns out of these 
missions. A few days ago they tore down my fences ; 
and I do not know what the Missionary Board of New 
York means to do. It is a fact we are doing no good ; 
when the emigration passes, the Indians all run oif to 
trade, and return worse than when we came amongst 
them.'' 

X. Dr. Whitman had declared many times during 
the last two years of his life that he wished to leave ; 
that he knew the Indians were ill disposed towards him 
and that it was dangerous for him to remain among themj 
that for a couple of years he had done nothing for the 
teaching of the Indians, because they would not listen to 
him. He said in the fall of 1847 that he would leave 
certainly in the spring for the Dalles, where he had al- 
ready bought the Methodist mission He went so far 
then as to ask Mr. McKay to pass the winter with him, 
for fear of the Indians, and seemed disposed to exchange 
his place at Wailatpu for another one in the Willamette. 
(See Mr. McKay's statement). Mr. Spalding declared 
also, in the winter of 1847, that for three or four ^^ears 
he had ceased to teach the Indians, as they refused to 
hear him (See Gervais' statement). 

XI. From a letter of Dr. White Indian Agent, writ- 
ten in 1845 to the Indian Department at Washington, it 
is evident that at that time the whole colony was in a ter- 
rible fright, expecting that ^11 the Indinn tribes of the 
Walla Walla country would massacre the Americans 
who were upon their lands, and next would come down 
upon the Willamette settlement and destroy the whole 
colony. 

XII. In spite of the enthusiasm that had signalized 
the first year of the establishment of his mission, Mr. 
Spalding was complaining even as early as 1840, that he 
had very little hope in the dispositions of the Nez Per- 
ces. (See Mr. Spalding's Letters, printed in the Ameri- 
can Board of Missionaries for Foreign Missions, publish- 
ed in 1842.) 

XIII. A missionary of the Spokans, writing to Dr. 
Whitman as early as 1839, said : " The failure of this 
mission (the Spokan) is so strongly impressed upon my 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. ' 23 

mind that I feel it necessary to have cane in hand and 
as much as one shoe on, ready for a move. I see noth- 
ing but the power of. God that can save us." 

These facts and statements prove clearly that there 
existed among the Indians, long before the arrival of the 
bishop of Walla Walla and his clergy, strong causes of 
dissatisfaction against the Protestant missionaries and 
the Americans in general, and that they formed a leaven 
that had been fermenting for several vears. 



CHAPTEE II. 
Boeumentary Evidence Proving the foregoing assertions 

MR. JOHN TOUPIN's STATEMENT, IN 1848. 

'• I have been seventeen years employed as interpreter 
at Fort "Walla Walla, and I left that Fort about seven 
years ago. I was there when Mr. Parker, in 1835, came 
to select places for Presbyterian missions among the 
Cayuses and the Ncz Perces, and to ask lands for these 
missions. He employed me as interpreter in his nego- 
tiations with the Indians on that occasion. Mr. Pom- 
brun, the gentleman then in charge of the Fort, accom- 
panied him to the Cayuses and the Nez Perces. 

" Mr. Parker, in company with Mr. Pombrun, an 
American and myself, went first to the Cayuses 
upon the lands called Wailatpu, that belonged to 
the three chiefs — Splitted Lip, or Yomtipi, Eed 
Cloak, or Wapfcachtakamal, and Tilaukaikt. Having 
met tiiem at that place he told them that he was coming 
to select a place to build a preaching house to teach them 
how to live, and to teach school to their children ; that 
he would not come himself to establish the mission, but 
a Doctor or a medicine man would come in his place; 
that the Doctor would be the chief of the mission, and 
would come in the following spring. ' I come to select 
a place for a mission,' said he, ' but I do not intend to 
take your lands for nothing. After the Doctor is come, 
there will come every year a big ship, loaded with goods 



:24 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

to be divided among the Indians. Those goods will not 
be sold, but given to you. The missionaries will bring 
you plows and hoes, to teach you how to cultivate the 
land, and they will not sell, but give them to you/ 

"From the Cayuses Mr. Parker went to the Nez Per- 
ces, about 125 miles distant, on the lands of the Old But- 
ton, on a small creek which empties into the Clearwater 
seven or eight miles from the actual mission. And there 
he made the same promises to the Indians as at Wailat- 
pu. ' Next spring there will come a missionary to estab- 
lish himself here and take a piece of land; but he will 
not take it for nothing; you shall be paid every year; 
this is the American fashion.' 

"In the following year, 1836, Dr. Whitman arrived 
among the Cayuses, and began to build. The Indians 
did not stop him, as they expected to be paid, as they 
said. 

In the summer of the next year, 1837, Splitted Lip 
asked him where the goods which he had promised him 
were ; whether he would pay him or whether he wanted 
to steal his lands. He told him if he did not want to pay 
him, he had better go off immediatel}^, because he did not 
want to give his lands for nothing. This has been told 
me very often by the Indians at that time. 

"In the winter of the ensuing year, 1838, as Splitted 
Lip's wife was sick, he went to the Doctor one evening 
and told him : ' Doctor, jou. have come here to give us 
bad medicines ; you come to kill us, and you steal our 
lands. You had promised to -psiy me every year, and 
you have been here already two years and have as yet 
given me nothing. You had better go away; if my wife 
dies; you shall die also.' I happened to be present in 
the house when he spoke so, and I heard him. 

" I very often heard the Indians speaking of new dif- 
ficulties relative to the payment for their lands, arising 
from year to year. They constantly told the Doctor to 
pay them or else go away ; and the Doctor always per- 
sisted in remaining there without paying them, saying 
that the Indians were talking lightly, and that the}^ 
would do him no harm. He let them have ploughs, but 
those only who had good horses to give him, as they 
said. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 25 

'' The Indians often complained that the Doctor and 
his wife were very severe and hard to them, and often 
ill-treated them, which occasioned frequent quarrels be- 
tween them and the Doctor. 

" One day the Doctor had a great quarrel with the 
Indians, on account of some of their horses that had 
damaged his grain, and was very ill treated by them. 
Tliey insulted him, covered him with mud, plucked out 
his beard, pulled his ears, tried to throw his house do^vn, 
snapped a gun at him twice, and attempted to strike him 
with an axe, which he avoided by turning his head aside. 

"A short time afterwards he started for the United 
States, telling the Indians that he was going to see the 
great chief of the Americans, and that when he would 
return, he would bring with himself many people to 
chastise them; and the Indians had been looking to his 
return with great anxiety and fear. 

"Mr. Spalding established his mission among the N'ez 
Perces in the same year (1836) as Dr. Whitman did 
among the Cayuses. 

" The following j^ear, 1837, lie decided to send Mr. 
Gray to the United States with a band of horses to ex- 
change them for cattle. Three Indian chiefs started 
with Mr. Gray, viz -.Ellis, the Blue Cloak and the Hat. 
When at the rendezvous their horses feet began to fail, 
Ellis then observed to his companions that the}' could 
not continue their journey, their horses being unable to 
stand the trip, and that they would die on the road. 
Then ho and the Blue Cloak returned back, while the 
Hat went on with Mr. Gray. Ellis and Blue Cloak ar- 
rived in the fall at the mission ' of Mr. Spalding, 
who got very angry when he saw them back, and 
said that they deserted severe puuishment. He could 
not take Ellis, who had too strong a part}^ ; but the Blue 
Cloak, having come one evening with the others to 
prayer, Mr. Spalding saw him, and commanded the In- 
dians to take him ; and as no one would move, the young 
chief ^ez Perce, or Tonwitakis, arose with anger, took 
hold of the' Indian and tied him up, and then said to Mr. 
Spalding : 'Now" whip him.' Mr. Spalding answered him ; 
' No, I do not whip ; I stand in the place of God, I com- 
mand ; God does not whip, he command^.' ' You are a 
3 



26 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

liar/ said the Indian chief, ' look at your image, (point- 
ing to an image hanging on the wall, which Mr, Spalding 
had made for the instruction of the Indians) you. have 
painted two men in it and Q-od behind them with a bun- 
dle of rods to whip them. Whip him, or if not we will 
put you in his place and whip you.' Mr. Spalding obey- 
ed, whipped the Indian, and received from him the horse 
that he had exacted. 

* The third chief, who had followed Mr. Gray on his 
journey.to the States, was killed on the way by the Sioux 
or Pawnees. When Mr. Gray returned, in the ensuing 
year, 1838, Ellis, seeing that he was alone, and learning 
that his companion had been killed, went to Mr, Spald- 
ing, and said to him: ^ Ilear me j the Hat, who accom- 
panied Mr. Gray, has been killed; if we had gone with 
bim we should have been killed too; and because we 
returned back, refusing to follow hjm, you wished us to 
be flogged ; you then intended that wq should be killed, 
also.' The Indians then met together and kept all the 
whites who lived at the station, blockaded in their house 
for more than a month. I was then sent three times by 
Mr. Pombrun to the Nez Perces, to induce them to set 
the missionaries and their people at liberty, observing to 
them that it was not the fault of Mr. Gray if the Indian 
chief had been killed ; and it was at my thjrd trip only 
that I could induce them to accept tobacco in sign of 
peace, and to retire, 

" About the year 1839, in the fall, Mr. Smith, belong- 
ing to the same society as Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spal- 
ding, asked Ellis permission to build upon his lands for 
the purpose of teaching the Indians as the other mis- 
sionaries were doing, and of keeping a school. Ellis 
allowed him to build, but forbade him to cultivate the 
land, and warned him that if he did th'e piece of ground 
which he would till should serve to bury him in. In the 
following spring, however, Mr. Smith prepared his plow 
to till the ground y and Ellis, seing him read}^ to begin, 
went to him and said to him: < Do you not recollect 
what I told you? I do not wish you to cultivate the 
land.' Mr. Smith, however, persisted in his dotermina^ 
tion ; but as he was beginning to plow, the Indians took 
bold of him and said to him ; ' Do you not know what 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 27 

Las been told you, that you would be digging a hole in 
which j-ou should be buried ?' Mr. Smith then did not 
persist anj' longer, but said to them : ' Let me go, I will 
leave the place;' and he started off immediately. 
That circumstance has been related to me by the Indians, 
and soon after I saw Mr. Smith myself, at Fort Walla 
Walla; he was on his wa}" down to Fort Vancouverj 
where he embarked for the Sandwich Islands, from 
whence he did not come back any more. 

" I have witnessed repeated efforts on the part of 
Mr. Pombrun to help Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, 
He often told me that the Doctor treated him very 
friendly, but that it was but reasonable on his part, as 
without him those missionaries could not stand, and 
would have been killed long since. 

" Two Catholic missionaries passed by Walla Walla in 
1838, on their i^ay from Canada to Fort Vancouver. In 
the j^ears 1839 and 1840, one of them. Father Demers, 
came to Walla Walla for a short time each year, and 
gave instructions to the Indians, which a great part of 
the Cayuses came to hear. Some time after, Dr. Whit- 
man^and Mr. Spalding, being alarmed at seeing so many 
Indians abandonijig them to go and hear the priest, came 
to Fort Walla Walla, and reproved Mr. Pombrun for 
having allowed the priest to teach the ludians in his 
Fort. I was near the gate of the Fort, when the Doctor 
had hardly dismounted from his horse before he said, a 
little excited, to Mr. Pombrun:^'! thought, sir, that 
3'ou had promised me that you would not allow that 
priest the liberty of speaking to the Indians in j^our 
Fort. If that man has the liberty of coming among the 
Indians, we shall have to abandon ihem ; we shall be" un- 
able to do anything more among them.' 

" Two years ago, 1846, a Cayuse came to my house, in 
the Willamette settlement, and stopped jvith me over 
two weeks. During that time he often spoke of Dr. 
Whitman, complaining that he possessed the lands of the 
Indians, on which he was raising a great deal of wheat, 
which he was selling to the Americans v/ithout giving 
them anything; that he had a mill u])on their lands and 
they had to pay him for grinding their wheat — a big 
horse, for twenty sacks. He said they told him to leave, 



28 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

but he would not listen to them; that they had been 
much enlightened by the Americans; before they bad no 
wit, but the Americans had giveu them some; thej^ had 
told them that the American missionaries were stealing 
their lands; that the}^ were receiving great benefit from 
them, and that they were living among them for the 
purpose of enriching themselves/' 

(Signed) JOHN TOUPHST. 

St. Louis of Willamette, Sept. 24, 1848. 



MR. THOMAS M'kAY's STATEMENT IN 1848. 

'^ I was at] Fort Walla Walla last fall, when the Cayuse 
chiefs, at the request of the Bishop of Walla Waila, met 
there to decide whether they would give him a piece of 
land for a mission. 

During the meeting, Tumsakay said that Dr. Whitman 
was a bad man ; that he robbed and poisoned them. 
The Bishop replied to him that ' his thoughts were bad, 
the Doctor did not poison them, nor rob them ; he had 
to banish those thoughts from his mind. You do not 
know the Doctor,' he added, ' he is not a bad man.' 

" One of the chiefs told the Bishop that they would 
send the doctor off very soon ; they would give him his 
house if he wished. The Bishop answered .that he 
did not 'Wish them to send the Doctor away, and that 
there was room enougk for two missions. 

" The Doctor often told me that for a couple of years 
he had ceased to teach the Indians because they would 
not listen to him. He told me repeatedly, during the 
tAVO last years especially, that he wished to leave ; that 
he knew the Indians were ill-disposed towards him, and 
it was dangerous for him to stay there; but that he 
wished all the'chiefs to tell him to go away, in order to 
excuse himself to the Board of Foreign Missions. Last 
fall, during my stay at Fort Walla Walla, long before the 
meeting of the chiefs, called by the Bishop, the Doctor 
asked me to go and pass the winter with him, saying 
that he was afraid of the Indians. I told him I could 
not, on account of my business, which called me home; 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 29 

but tliat I would exchange my place for his if he 
wished. Then he replied he would see my place. He 
told me also several times last fall that he would leave 
certainly in the spring for the Dalles. I am aware, 
moreover, that the Cayuses have a great many times 
ill-treated Dr. Whitman." 

(Signed,) Thomas McKay. 

St. Louis of Willamette, Sept. 11, 1848. 



Mr. John Baptist Gervais' Statei^ent in 1848. 

" I spent last fall and last winter among the Nez Per- 
ces. I arrived there at the beginning of October. But 
I have known the Nez Perces for over twenty years, 
having been in the habit of trading and traveling with 
them almost every year; and it was at their request 
that I had gone to settle in their country. For many 
years I had heard the Nez Perces very often speaking 
badly of Mr. Spalding. It appeared to me that the 
greatest part of those Indians disliked and hated him. 
According to their reports, they were very often quarrel- 
ing with him; they complained that Mr. Spalding was 
too quick tempered. He fought with them twice, and 
tried to fire at them once. The Indians ill-treated and 
insulted him in a great many waj^s. They threw down 
his mill, pretending it was theirs. 

" Mr. Spalding told me himself last fall that for three 
or four years back he had ceased entirely to teach the 
Indians, because they refused to hear him." 

(Signed,) John Baptist Gervais. 

St. Paul of Willamette, Oct. 15, 1848. 



Messrs. John Young's and Augustin Eaymond's 

Statement in 1848. 
"I spent the winter of ^846 in Dr. Whitman's em- 
ployment. I generally worked at the saw-mill. During 
the time I was there, I observed that Dr. Whitman was 
in the habit of poisoning the wolves. I did not see him 
put the poison in the baits for the wolves; but two 



30 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

youn^ men of the house, bj" bis order, were poisoning 
pieces of meat, and distributing them in the places where 
' the wolves were in the habit of coming, at a short 
distance around the establishment of the Doctor. 

" The Doctor gave mo once some arsenic to poisofi the 
wolves that were around the saw-mill. By his order I 
poisoned some pieces of meat which I fixed at the end of 
short sticks at about a quarter of a mile from the saw- 
mill. Some Indians who happened to pass there, took 
the meat and eat it -, three of them were very sick and 
were near dying. After they got better, the old chief, 
Tilaukaikt, with a certain number of others, came to me 
at the saw-mill, and told nie, (pointing to those who had 
eatcQ the poisoned meat,) that they had been very sick ; 
that if they had died, their hearts would have been very 
bad, and they w^ould have killed me ; but as they did not 
die, their hearts were consoled, and they would not hurt 
me. Some days afterwards, the Doctor told me, laugh- 
ing, that they would have certainly died, if they had not 
drunk a great quantity of warm water, to excite vom- 
iting. ' I had told them very often,' said he, ' not to eat 
of that meat which we distributed for the wolves, that it 
would kill them : they will take care now, I suppose.' ' 

" An American, who was also in the service of Dr. 
Whitman, worked with me at the saw-mill. He got 
from me a part of the poison which the Doctor had 
given me, and with it poisoned some other meat for the 
purpose of killing tigers, as he said. 

• " About eight years ago, the first year I came into the 
country, I stopped for about ten days with Mr. A. Eay- 
mond, the companion of ni}^ journey, at Dr. Whitman's, 
who happened to have then a quanity of melons in his 
garden. Mr. Gray, who was then living with the 
Doctor, offered us as many melons to eat as we liked ; 
but he warned us at the same time not to eat them indis- 
criminately, as some of them were poisoned. ' The In- 
dians,' said he, ' are continually stealing our melons ; to 
stop them, we have. put a little poison on'the bigger ones, 
in order that the Indians who will eat them might be a 
little sick : we did not put on enough of it to kill them, 
but only enough to make them a little sick.' And he 



THE WIlITxMAN MASSACRE. ^ 31 

went and selected himself some melons for ns to eat/' 
(Signed,) John Young. 

St. Paul of Willamette, September 12, 1848. 

This is to certify that the part of the above statement 
of Mr. John Yonng relative to the putting of poison on 
some melons at Dr. Whitman's establishment is correct. 
I was with Mr. Young at that time; I heard what Mr. 
Gray told him : his words were directed to both of us, 
and I have eaten of the melons which Mr. Gray gave us 
at that time. 

(Signed) Augustine Eaymond. 

'St. Paul of Willamette, Sept. 12, 1848. 



Extracts from a Letter written on the 4:th of April, 1845, by 
Dr. Elijah White, Suh-lndian Agent, ivest of the Rocky 
Mountains, to the Indian Department at Washington. 

After- speaking of some difficulties that occurred m 
California between the Cayuses and the Walla Wallas 
on one part, and the Spaniards and Americans on the 
other, on account of some stolen horses that the Cayuses 
and Walla Wallas had taken from hostile Indians by 
fighting them, Mr. White passes on to relate a murder 
there committed coollj' by an American the fall previous, 
upon the person of Elijah, the son of the Yellow Serpent, 
the chief of the Walla Wallas, in the following way : 

" The Indians had gone to the fort of Captain Sutter 
to church, and after service, Elijah was invited into an- 
other apartment,' taking with him his uncle, (Young 
Chief, or Tawatowe, of the Umatilla river,) a brave and 
sensible chief, of the age of five and forty; while there, 
in an unarmed and defenceless condition, they com- 
menced menajicing him for things alleged against the 
river Indians of this upper country, in which none of 
thenV had any participation, called them indiscriminately 
dogs, thieves, (tc. This American then observed, 'yes- 
terday you were going to kill me, now you must die,' 
and drawing a pistols-Elijah, who had been five or six 



32 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

years at the Methodist mission, and had learned to read, 
write, and speak English respectably, said, deliberately, 
'let me pray a little first,' and kneeling down, at once 
commenced, and, when invoking the divine mercy, was 
shot through the hea.it or vitals, dead upon the spot. 

" Taking for truth an Indian report, this horrible af- 
fair creates considerable excitement, and there is some 
danger of its disturbing the friendly relation that hith- 
erto existed between us here and all those formidable 
tribes in the region of .Walla Walla and Snake river. 

" Learing from Dr. Whitman, who resides in their 
midst, how much they were all excited by reason of the 
treacherous and violent death of this educated and ac- 
complished young chief, and, perhaps, more especially 
by the loss they had sustained, and then, after suffering 
so many hardships and encountering so many dangers, 
losing the whole, I apprehended there might be much 
difficulty in adjusting it, particularly as they lay much 
stress upon the restless, disaffected scamps, late from 
Willamette to California, loading them with the vile 
epithets of dogs, thieves, &c., from which they believed 
or affected to believe, that the slanderous reports of our 
citizens caused all their loss and disasters, and therefore 
held us responsible. He, Ellis, the Nez Perce chief, as- 
sured me that the Cayuses, Walla Wallas, Nez Perces, 
Spokans, Pondereys, and Snakes were all on terms of 
amity, and that a portion of the aggrieved party were 
for raising a party of about two thousand warriors of 
those formidable tribes, and march to California at once, 
and nobly revenge themselves on the inhabitants by 
capture and plunder, enrich themselves upon the spoils ; 
whilst others not indisposed to the enterprise, wished 
first to learn how it would be regarded here, and wheth- 
er we would remain neutral in the affair. A third party 
were for holding us responsible, as Elijah was killed by 
an American, and the Americans incensed the Spaniards. 

" Sir, how this affair will end is difficult to conjecture ; 
the general impression is that it will lead to the most 
disastrous consequences to the Californians themselves, or 
to the colony of the Willamette valley. My principal 
fear is that it results in so much jealousy, prejudice and 
disaffection, as to divert their minds from the pursuit of 
knowledge, agriculture, and the means of civilization, 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 33 

which thoy have been for such a length of time so laud- 
ably engaged in obtaining. 

" Should this be the case with these numerous, brave, 
and formidable tribes, the result to them and to us would 
be, indeed, most calamitous. To prevent such a result 
I wrote, through Ellis, a long, cordial, and rather sym- 
pathizing letter to the chiefs of these tribes, assuring 
them that I should at once write to the Governor of Cal- 
ifornia, to Captain Sutter, and to our great chief, respect- 
ing this matter. With a view, to divert attention and 
promote good feeling, I invited all the chiefs to come 
down in the fall, before the arrival of the emigrants, in 
company with Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, and con- 
fer with me upon this subject." 

(Signed,) Elijah White. 



Mr. William Craig's Statement in 1848. 

Question by Hon. P. H. Burnett — State whether you 
were acquainted with Tom Hill, a Delaware Indian, and 
when and where, and what statements he made to the 
ISQz Perces, and whether the Cayuses were informed of 
his statements^ and what impression he made on the In- 
dians ? 

Auswei'^ — The first acquaintance was in the Rocky 
Mountains in the year 1837, and then in 1845, when he 
came to the Nez Perces country. I frequently heard 
that he had been telling unfavorable tales of the Ameri- 
cans ; how they had treated the Indians in his country. 
He said the first were missionaries that came to him, 
and then others came in and settled, and then com- 
menced taking our lands, and finally drove us off; and 
they will do the same to you. This I had heard of Tom 
Hill. On seeing him, I asked him what he had told the 
Indians ; if he had told them so and so, as I had heard. 
He said he had told them how the Americans had treat- 
ed them in his place, and they had better not keep 
Spalding there, or it would l)ethe same thing with them; 
I am acquainted with missionaries; it is only a way of 
making property; there is nothing in religion, only to 
make money ; you can see that ; look how they are sell- 



34 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

ing everything they raise in your own lands ; you cannot 
get anything from them without paying for it, not so 
much as a piece of meat when you are hungrj^. After 
my interview with Hill, he came once in company with 
some Nez Perces to Dr. Whitman's; after remaining 
there some twelve or fifteen days, he returned ; I asked 
him how he and the Doctor got along- he told me very 
well ; that he was a heap better man than Spalding • he 
had asked him into his house sometimes. After that the 
Doctor told me Tom had done some mischief with the 
Indians in that place. 

Question — Will you state what is the custom among 
the Cayuses when a medicine man fails to cure a patient 
and the patient dies ? 

Answer — Since I have been acquainted with them, it 
has always been their custom in such cases to kill the 
medicine man or woman; and every year since I have 
known them, I have heard of them killing such persons. 

Question — How long have you been acquainted with 
the Cayuses? 

Answer — Since the year 1840. 

Question — State whether you ever heard any of the 
■Cayuses say anything about the Catholics establishing 
missions among them, and whether they disliked that 
they should? j 

Ansvv^er. — I heard an Indian, who was left in charge 
of the Young Chief's business, while the chief was out 
after buffalo, and which was sometime during the sum- 
mer of 1847, say that the Young Chief told him that if 
they, the Catholic missionaries, should come there before 
he got back, to tell them to remain, but not to commence 
building until his return, and he would show them where 
to build. It was, however,, a common report among the 
ISTez Perces that the Cayuses had asked the Catholics to 
come among them and to establish missions. 

Question. — Did you hear Dr. Whitman say anything 
relative to the Catholics establishing missions among the 
Indians ; if so, state what? 

Answer. — Dr. Whitman told me that he heard a talk 
of the Catholics estabhshing a mission on the Tucannon, 
about sixty miles off, and said he would "rather they 
would be nearer at hand. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 35 

Question,— State where you were at the time the mas- 
sacre took place, and what do you know about a messen- 
ger from the murderers to the Nez Perces Indians, and 
what the messenger said in reference to the cause of the 
Ca^'uses killing Dr. Whitman. 

Answer.— I was living about ten miles from Mr. Spald- 
ing's mission. Mr. Camfield first brought the news of 
the massacre. On the 8th, after the massacre, being 
Monday, a great many Indians met at Mr. Spalding's 
before Mr. S. had returned; a messenger came there 
from the Cay uses, and the Indians, when assembled, re- 
quired him to state all he knew about the matter, and to 
state the truth ; 1 was present; and he said, in substance, 
that all the chiefs were concerned, except Young Chief 
and Five Crows, who knew nothing of it; that the cause 
of the murder was that Dr. Whitman and Spalding were 
poisoning the Indians. They asked him, are you sure 
that they were poisoning the Indians ? He said yes. 
How do you know it? Jos, Lewis said so. What did 
he say ? Jos, Lewis said that Dr. Whitman and Mr. 
Spalding had been writing for two years to their friends 
in the East, where Jos, Lewis lived, to send them poison 
to kill off the Ca^'Uses and the Nez Perces; and they 
had sent them some that was not good, and they wrote 
for more that would kill them off quick, and that the 
medicine had come this summer. Jos. Lewis said he was 
lying on the settee in Dr. Whitman's room, and he heard 
a conversation between Dr. Whitman, Mrs. Whitman, 
and Mr. Spalding, in which Mr. Spalding asked the Doc- 
tor why he did not kill the Indians off faster? "Oh,'' 
said the Doctor, "they are dying fast enough ; the young 
ones will die off this winter, and the old ones next 
spring." Mr^, Whitman said that our friends will be on, 
and want to settle in this country. A talk then took 
place betv/een Dr, Whitman and Mr. Spalding, in which 
thej^said, how easy we will live when the Indians are all 
killed off; such an Indian has so many horses, and such 
an Indian so many spotted horses, and our boys will 
drive them up, and we will give them to our friends. 
One of them said that man will hear us, alluding to Jos. 
Lewis. Oh, no, said another, he cannot hear, he is sleep- 
ing sound, They talked rather low, but Jos. Lewis said 



36 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

he could hear all that passed. This Indian messenger sta- 
ted that Jos. Lewis had made this statement in a council of 
the Cayuses on the Saturday night previous to the mur- 
der, and that Jos. Lewis said he had heard this conver- 
sation between Dr. Whitman and the others on the 
Wednesday before the murder. Jos. Lewis, the messen- 
ger said, told the Cayuses in the council that unless they 
(the Indians) killed Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding 
quick, they would all die. The -messenger went on to 
say himself, that one hundred and ninety-seven Indians 
had died since the immigration commenced passing that 
summer. He said that there were six buried on Monday 
morning, and among the rest his own wife; he said he 
.knew they were poisoned. 

Question. — Are you acquainted with the fact that the 
small-pox was spread among the Blackfeet Indians east 
of the Eocky Mountains ? If so, state in what year, and 
how far it spread, and whether a knowledge of this fact 
is not familiar with the Cayuses and Nez Perces. 

Answer. — In the year 1837, the small-pox was spread 
among the Blackfeet Indians by one Beck with, wh6 
brought the matter for that purpose. Beckwith took it 
himself, and a clerk at one of the trading posts, J^ort 
Muriah, on one branch o! the Missouri river, helped to 
spread it among the Blackfeet Indians for the purpose 
of killing them off. A knowledge of this fact is common 
among the Nez Perces, and, I think, among the Cayuses. 
(Signed,) William Craig. 

July 11, 1848. 



CHAPTEE III. 

REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE ADDUCED IN THE FOREGOING 
CHAPTER. 

Every impartial and unprejudiced person, after read- 
ing attentively the foregoing documents, will come to 
the conclusion that the causes, both remote and imme- 
diate of the whole evil, must have been the following :— 

I. The promise made by Mr. Parker to the Cayuses 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 87 

and tho Xez Ppreos of pa3'ing for their lands oveiy year, 
and tlie want of fulfillment of tiiat promise. 

Thence came '-the months of deep solicitude, occa- 
sioncd by the increasing and menacing' demands of tho 
Indians for paj* for their water, their wood, their air, 
their lands,'' of which Mr. Spalding complains in his 
'•History of the Massacre." It was not unnatural that 
the Indians seeing they were refused the price fixed for 
their lands, should repeat their demands, and finally 
come to the threatcnings. White people would no"t 
have done much less. 

II. The death of tKo Nez Perces' chief, killed on his 
way to the United States, when ho Avas in company with 
3Ir. Gray, and in his service. 

The conclusion is evident from the circumstances 
which preceded that death, and from tho proceedings of 
ihe Nez Perces against Mr. Spalding, and all the people 
of his establishment on account of it, and likewise from 
the general habit of the Indians in such cases. Besides, 
in the council that the Cayuses held sometime after the 
massacre, to offer to tho government their proposals of 
peace, Tilaukaikt was mentioning that death as one of 
their grounds of complaint against the Americans. 

III. The murder committed by an American in Cali- 
fornia, on the person of Elijah, "^the son of tho Walla 
Walla chief, in 1844. 

Dr. White's letter sa.ys in relation to that murder : 
• Tho general impression is that it will lead to tlie most 
disastrous consequences to tho Californians thQmselves, 
or to the colony of tho Willamette valley." Mr. Spald- 
ing says in his "History of the Massacre:" -'When 
they, the Indians, returned back from California, two 
years ago, after the death of the son of the Walla Walla 
chief, several meetings were held to consider whether 
Dr. Whitman, myself, or some other American teacher, 
should be killed as a set-off for Elijah." And Mr. Mc- 
Kinlay assures mo that in the fall of 1844, tho Indians, a 
short time after their return from California, met one 
da}^ at Fort VV^alla AYalla, seven hundred in number, all 
armed, and decided to walk down immediately upon tho 
colony of the Willamette, and that they could be stopped 
only by the Young Chief, who, by his influence and en- 
4 



38 THE WHITMAN MASSACEE, 

treaties, decided then> to abandon theii* uDdortakiDg and 
to go home. And in the spring of 11^47, the Walla Walla 
chief himselfj yelio^y Serpent, started with a party of 
Walla Wallas and Cayuses for the purpose of attacking 
the Americans in California, whom they thought unsus- 
picious, but having found them on their ,«:uard, and too 
strong to be attacked witliout dq^nger, he took their part 
against the Spaniards, offered his services to them, and 
fought in their ranks. On his w^y, coming back, he lost 
many of his people from sickness, so that he and his 
young man, when arrived at home in the fall, felt worse 
disposed than ever towards the Americans. And, Tilau- 
kaikt mentioned that murder also among the grievances 
that they had against the Americans. 

lY, The tales of Tom Hill in accordance with what 
was going on among the Indians. 

That Indian had told the Nez Percos and Cayuses that 
•' the first were missionaries," who came to them " only 
to make property, that there was nothing in religion." 
Now, when the Protestant missionaries arrived among 
those tribes of Indians, they assured them that they 
came only to teach them and to help them to live hotter, 
and promised them a great price for their lands. But 
soon after they got their lands they worked for them- 
selves and neglected the Indians, and even for three or 
four years the}^ had ceased entirely to teach them, as 
Mr. bpalding said. They got bands of horses, sheep and 
cattle ; made large farms, traded with the emigrants 
their horses, cattle and grain, and were getting rich 
without dividing with the Indians. They refused obsti- 
pately, from year to year, to pay the price they had 
promised for their lancfs, and persisted in keeping them; 
and they made nothing jfor the Indians unless they were 
paid for it. 

Tom Hill had also said, that after the missionaries, 
^'others come, settle, begin to take their lands, and 
finally send them off." Now — ^the year after the arrival 
of those missionaries— Mr. Spalding thought lit to send 
Mr. Gray to the States for the purpose of bringing from 
thence fifty new faniiUes of missionaines, and had it 
made known to the Indians. In 1839 Mr. Smith wished 
to cultivate the ]m^ m spit^^ of the Indians, nnd becausa 



/ 



TUE WHITMAN MASSACRE. , 39 



they stopped jiim he went off. In 1842 Dr. Whitman 
started for the States, telling the Indians that he would 
bring back with him many people to chastise them for 
ill-treating him. The Indians had been waiting for his 
return with anxiety, fearing the execution of his threat. 
He came back, however, with a few people only; but in 
the following year more came ; and next year yet more, 
and more and more for every following year; so that 
the Indians could possibly suppose that the Doctor 
would execute his threats and take revenge on them as 
soon as he thought himself strong enough. 

Besides, they knew the Willamette valley well, and 
seeing so many Americans passing through their coun- 
try every year to go thither, it was not unnatural they 
should put this question to themselves: If they con- 
tinue for many years more to come in so great a num- 
ber, where will they settle? There is not room enough 
in the Willamette for so many people. And the answer 
then w^as natural : — They will come here and will take 
our lands, as Tom Hill says they have done in the 
States, and as they are doing in the Willamette, and will 
drive us out of the country. And then that conclusion 
suggested to them by Tom Hill found naturally its 
place : that the missionaries were among them only to 
prepare the way for other Americans, and that they had 
better not keep Mr. Spalding nor any other American 
missionary among themselves. 

Y. The spreading of small pox by Americans among 
the Blackfcet Indians, in connection with the measles 
among the Cayuses, and the imprudent use of poison 
at Dr. Whitman's establishment, and his profession as a 
physician. 

The Cayuses and the ^N'ez Perces, as stated by Mr. 
Craig, knew that the small-pox had been brought and 
spread among the Blackfcet Indians by Americans, and 
seeing a great similarity between the effects of the 
measles among themselves and of the small-pox among 
the Blackfcet, they could be induced very easily to 
believe that the Americans had brought them the same 
sickness' with the intention of killing them as they had 
done with the Blackfcet. Moreover Doctor Whitman 
w^as in the habit of using poison to kill wolves. The In- 



40 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

dians knew it ; and three of them had bpen very near 
losing their lives by eating of the meat that he had 
poisoned. The Indians knew then that he had the 
power of poisoning them whenever he wished ; and, 
with Indians, from the power to the act, there is but 
very little distance. 

It is certain also that the Doctor, or those about him, 
had poisoned melons for the purpose of making the In- 
dians sick. The Indians knew it, and had been long com- 
plaining of it. Going farther ttiey took occasion from 
that circumstance for accusing the Doctor of having 
poisoned other food that he gave them to eat ; and it 
was a general report among them that very often they 
experienced vomitings and colics after eting the Doc- 
tor's aliments, and they went so far as to designate a 
good many among themselves who have been taken 
sick in this manner. The Doctor was also in the habit 
of trusting poison to all persons in his service indis- 
criminately. Who then could say that he had not 
trusted poison to some person unworthy of his confi- 
dence, who, without his knowledge and against his will, 
might have used it against the Indians? 

And finally, Dr. Whitman was a physician, and every 
one knows the prejudice of the Indians against any kind 
of what they call " medicine men," to whom they impute 
the power of killing or healing as they choose, the per- 
sons they attend, ^nd whom they are in the habit of 
killing as murderers, when their patient dies. 

YI. Lack of sincerity and faithfulness to their word 
aftd promise, violence of character and imprudent ex- 
pressions, together with an excessive seeking for tem- 
poral welfare in some of the missionaries. 
. We have seen that they had promised to pay the In- 
dians for their lands and to give them a great many 
things which they never gave. 

Mr. Spalding, writing to the Bishop of Walla Walla 
some days after the massacre of AVailatpu, said : " My 
object in writing principally is to give information 
through you to the Cayuses that it is our wish to have 
peace, that we do not wdsh Americans to come from 
below to avenge the wrong ; we hope the Cayuses and 
Americans will be on friendly terms, that Americans will 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 41 

no more come to this country, unless they wish it. As 
soon as these men return, I hope, if alive, to send them 
to the Governor, to prevent Americans comini^ up to 
molest the Cayuses for what is done .... The Nez Per- 
ces pledged to protect us from the Cayuses if we' would 
prevent the Americans from coming up to avenge the 
murders. This Ave have pledged to do, and for this we 
beg for the sake of our lives at this place and Mr. 
Walker's. By all means keep quiet, send no war re- 
ports, send nothing but proposals of peace. They sa}' 
they iuive buried the death of the Walla Walla chief's 
son killed in California. They wish us to bury this 
offence." And in the Oregon American he says : " The 
object of the letter was solely to gain time for the H. 
B. Company to reach Walla Walla and secure our de- 
liverance before the Indians should discover any move- 
ment on the part of the Americans." And, as if to 
prove it, he had hardly escaped from the hands of the 
Indians, when on his way going down to the Willamette, 
in company with the other captives after their deliv- 
erance, passing at the Dalles, he tried all he could to in- 
duce the troops that were stationed there to go up im- 
mediately to the Cayuses and kill them all with the ex- 
ception of only five or six whom he commended to their 
clemency, as the following letter partly proves : — 

« Oregon City, Aug. 18th, 1848. 
"Hon. P. II. Burnett: 

" Dear Sir, — In answer to your polite note I can only 
say that I did not charge my mind parLiculrtrly with 
Eev. Mr. Spalding's statements, consequently cannot 
give you his precise language. I recollect distinctly, 
however, that he was not in favor of killing all the Cay- 
uses; for he gave me names of some four or five that ho 
knew to be friendly, and another whom I marked as 
questionable ; the balance, if I am not very much mis- 
taken, he would have share one fate 

" I am, Sir, with respect, yours, 

(Signed) *' J. Magone." 

M r. Spalding intended then to deceive the Indians with 
the letter that he wrote to the Bishop, and had no in- 



42 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

tenlion of keeping his promises to them. And the In- 
dians knew him so well in that respect that when they 
heard his letter read at the Catholic mission, they said 
without hesitation that Mr. Spalding was spealiing well 
because he was in a hole. Now, it is known by every 
one that nothing is so apt to destroy the confidence and 
excite the bad feelings of Indians towards any body as 
lack of sincerity and faithfulness. 

As to the violence of character and imprudent ex- 
pressions, I heard Dr. Whitman say at Fort Walla 
Walla, in the fall of 1847, that he had very much scolded 
the Indians of the Dalles, who had robbed the emi- 
grants, and that he had told them : " Since you are so 
wicked, such robbers, we shall call for troops to chastise 
you; and next fall we will see here five hundred 
dragoons who will take care of you." We have seen 
moreover in Mr. Toupin's statement the ignominius 
treatment to which the Doctor exposed himself by that 
hardness and violence of character, and Mr. Gervais told 
us Avhat the consequences were for Mr. Spalding through 
his quickness of temper. 

As for the excessive seeking for temporal welfare, Mr. 
Joel Palmer, then Indian Agent, said in my presence at 
Walla Walla, during the winter of 1848, that in his opin- 
ion the application of the missionaries to get excessive 
riches had been a great obstacle to the prosj)erity of the 
missions ; that it absorbed too much of their attention 
and excited against them the jealousy of the Indians -, 
that his opinion was that the government ought to pro- 
hibit them from getting more than a certain amount of 
revenue as considered necessary for their habitual sub- 
sistence. 

Such had been — upon the Indians — the unfavorable 
eflPect of the facts and circumstances which I have just 
given above as the remote causes of the massacre, that 
a great part of the volunteers of 1848, and also of the 
population of the WilUimette, came to the general con- 
clusion that the missions were prejudicial to the Indians, 
made them worse, and had better be abandoned. When 
they came to this conclusion, however, they could speak 
of the Protestant missions only, because they had then 
Jio opportunity of knowing what the Catholic missions 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 43 

were, and what effects they produced among the Indians 
— the Flat Head missions being so far off that very few 
Protestants knew anything of their management. 

YII. The ultimate causes and the only immediate ones 
were the ravages of the measles and dysentery, together 
with the tales of Lewis. 

The causes that I have enumerated above, must be 
considered as so many remote and indirect ones, which 
had been preparing for a long time the way for the 
awful deed ; but as to immediate causes every sensible 
person will find it in the ravages of the measles and dys- 
entery, which had terrified the Indians, and in the tales 
that Jo. Lewis spread among them, and which agreed so 
perfectl}" with the long prejudices and suspicions of the 
Indians, and with the tales that had been spread before 
by Tom Hill. As an evident proof of that I refer to 
Mr. Craig's statement which w^e have seen above, and as 
a second and yet stronger proof I introduce the lan- 
guage of Mr. Spalding himself. 

" It was most distressing," says Mr. Spaulding in his 
' History,' " to go into a lodge of some ten fires and count 
twenty or twenty-five, some in the midst of measles, 
others in the last stage of dysentery, in the midst of 
every kind of filth of itself sufficient to cause sickness, 
with no suitable means to alleviate their inconceivable 
sufferings, with perhaps one well person to look after the 
wants of two sick ones. They were dying every day, 
one, two, and sometimes five in a day, with the dysen- 
tery, which very generally followed the measles. Every- 
where the sick and dying were pointed to Jesus, and the 
well were urged to prepare for death. 

Indeed there was enough there to alarm Indians and 
to excite them to excesses, if anybody knew how to take 
advantage of those circumstances: and that man was 
found in Jo. Lewis. Appearing full of solicitude for the 
welfare of the Indians, he went to them and told them 
that he was himself an Indian the same as they were, 
belonging to the Chinook tribe ; " that formerly," as Mr. 
Spalding continues to relate in his ' History,' " the Amer- 
icans by ships brought poison to the low^er country with 
a view to destroy all the Indians. Yast multitudes 
were destroyed, as their old men very well recollect — 



44 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

referring, doubtless, to small-pox and measles, which 
raged throughout the Territory some thirty-five or forty 
years ago.* He, being a small child, was reserved by 
the Americans, taken to the States, where he had grown 
up, ever mindful of his native country, and anxious to 
return to his own people. He told the Indians that he 
took particular notice of the letters of Dr. Whitman and 
myself from this country ; told them that some of these 
letters spoke of this vast country as every way desirable 
for settlement — its healthy climate, its rich soil, the 
bands of horses, &c. Some of these letters called for 
poisons by which we could sweep off the Indians and 
•make way for the Americans. In accordance with this 
request, he said, several bottles of poison had been 
brought over by the last emigration which had caused 
imany deaths among the immigrants, and was the cause 
of the sore sickness and frequent deaths among the In- 
dians, and would soon kill them all if the Docter and 
Mrs. Whitman and myself were not removed. This I 
received from Stikas in his lodge twenty-four hours after 
the butchery had taken place. It seems that immedi- 
ately on my arrival Lewis set himself to excite the In- 
dians to do the dreadful deed. He told them that he 
overheard Dr. Whitman and myself consulting at night 
as to the most effectual way to kill off the Indians." 

" Such statements," Mr. Spalding continues, " follow- 
ing like statements which have been sounding in the 
ears of the Indians for years, and made with so much 
apparent solicitude for them, and at the time of great 
excitement among the Indians on account of the measles, 
had doubtless much to do in bringing about the bloody 
tragedy." And for my part I do not hesitate to affirm 
that any sensible and unprejudiced person will conclude 
that there, and there only, lies the immediate cause of 
the murders, and that such were the true and only mo- 
tives that induced the Indians to perpetrate the horrible 
crime. All efforts to prove the contrary would prove 
nothing but the injustice and blind prejudice of their 
Authors. 

"*It was in the year 1830 that entire villages were swept away by sick- 
ness. 



THE WHITxMAN MASSACRE. 45 



CHAPTEEiy. 

Journal of the Principal Events that occurred in the Walla 
Walla Country, from the arrival of the Bishop and his 
Clergy until the moment they left that Country for the 
Willamette Settlements. 

It was on the 5th of September, 1847, that the Eight Eev. 
Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet arrived at Fort Walla Walla, 
where he was cordially received by Mr. McBean, Clerk 
i\\ charge of the Fort. He was accompanied by the 
Superior. of the Oblats and two other clergymen. He 
had the intention of remaining but a few da^^s at the 
Fort, for he knew that Towatowe, (or Young Chief,) one 
of the Cayuse chiefs, had a house which he had destined 
for the use of the Catholic missionaries, and he-intended 
to go and occupy it without delay ; but the absence of 
the Young Chief, who was hunting buffalo, created a 
difficulty in regard to the occupation of the house, and 
in consequence he had to wait longer than he wished. 

On the 23d of September, Dr. Whitman, on his way 
from the Dalles, stopped at Fort Walla Walla. His 
countenance bore sufficient testimony of the agitation of 
his heart. He soon showed by his words that he was 
deeply wounded by the arrival of the Bishop. " I know 
very well," said he, " fo]' what purpose you have come." 
^' All is known," replied the Bishop, " I come to labor for 
the conversion of the Indians, and even of Americans, 
if they are willing to listen to me." The Doctor then 
continued in the same tone to speak of many things. 
He attributed the coming of the Bishop to the Young 
Chief's influence- — made a furious charge against the 
Catholics, accusing them of having persecuted Protest- 
ants and of even having shed their blood wherever they 

had prevailed. He said he did not like Catholics 

that he should oppose the missionaries to the extent of 
his power. ... He spoke against the Catholic Ladder * 
and said that he would cover it with blood, to show the 
persecution of Protestants by Catholics. He refused to 

*A picture explaining the principal points of Catholic faith. 



46 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

sell provisions to the Bishop, and protested that he wouH 
not assist the missionaries unless he saw them in starva- 
tion. 

After such a manifestation of sentiment towards 
Cathohcs in general and priests in particular, the Bishop 
was not astonished at hearing some hours after that Dr. 
Whitman on leaving the Fort went to the lodge of Pio- 
piomoxmox (or Yellow Serpent); that he had spoken a 
great deal against the Priests ; that he had wished to 
prevail upon this chief to co-operate with him, in order 
that by the aid of his influence with the Cayuses, De 
Shutes aud Dalles Indians, he might be enabled to ex- 
cite these nations against them, etc. 

The clergymen who had remained behind with the 
wagons and effects of the mission, arrived at Fort VYalla 
Walla on the 4th of October. 

During the months of October and November the Dr. 
came to the Fort several times to render his professional 
services to Mrs. Maxwell and Mr. Thos. McKay; he was 
a little more reserved than at the first interview, but it 
was always visible enough that the sight of the clergy 
was far from being agreeable to him. 

On the 26th of October Young Chief came to the 
Fort, and the Bishop asked him if he was disposed to re- 
ceive a priest for him and his young men ; telling him 
that he could only give one for the whole nation, and 
if the Cayuses wished to avail themselves of his ser- 
vices, they would do well to come to an understanding 
together concerning the location of the mission. The 
Young Chief replied that he would receive a priest with 
pleasure ; that he had long desired one, and that he could 
take his house and as much land as he wanted ; but as a 
means of re-uniting the Cayuses, who had been hereto- 
fore divided, and in order to facilitate their religious in- 
struction, he suggested the idea of establishing the mis- 
sion near Dr. Whitman's, at the Camp of Tilokaikt, say- 
ing that there was more land there than near his house, 
and that it was more central; that, by his wife, he had 
a right to the land of Tilokaikt, and that he was dis- 



wniins 



t> ; 



posed to give it to the mission, if Tilokaikt was 

that he would go and live there himself with his young 

men, if the mission could be established there; but that 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 47 

hi ease this could not be done, his house was at the ser- 
vice of the priest at any time he pleased. 

On the 29th of October the Bishop, agreeably to the 
ivords of the Youug Chief, informed Tilokaikt that he 
wished to see him ; and, on the 4th of November, Tilo- 
kaikt, Camaspelo, and Tomsaka}^ with many other In- 
dians, Avere at the Fort. The meeting took place after 
supper ; it was done publicly and in the presence of Mr. 
Thomas McKay and all the persons at the Fort who 
chose to witness it. 

Tomsakay spoke first, Camaspelo next, and then Tilo- 
kaikt taking the floor, put man}^ questions to the Bishop; 
asking him "whether it was the Pope who had sent him 
to ask for land for tlie mission — how the priests lived in 
-the country— who maintained them — -whether the priests 
Avould make presents to the Indians — w^hether they 
would cause their land to be ploughed — whether they 
would aid them in building houses— whether they would 
feed and clothe their children, &c. &c. The Bishop re- 
plied that it was the Pope who had sent him; that he 
had not sent him to take their land, but only for the 
purpose of saving their souls; that however, Laving to 
live, and posscssino- no wealth, he had asked of them a 
piece of land that he could cultivate for his support; 
that in his country it was the Faithful who maintained 
tlie priests, but that here he did not ask so much, but 
only a piece of land, and that the priests themselves 
would do the rest. He told them that he would not 
make pressents to Indians, that he would give them noth- 
ing for the land he asked; that in case they worked for 
Slim, he would. pay them for their work and no more; 
that he would assist them neither in ploughing their lands 
nor in building houses, nor would he feed or clothe their 
children, &c. The Bishop then closed, the young men 
retired, and Tilokaikt concluded the meeting by saying 
that he would not go against the words of the Young 
Chief, and requested the Bishop to send immediately 
Bome person to visit his land and select a place for a 
mission.* 

On the 8th of IS'ovcmber I went by order of the Bishop 

For further pajticulsrs of the qjeeting, see Mr. Thomas McKay's stat©^ 



48 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

to Wailatpu to look at the land which Tilokaikt had of- 
fered ; but he had changed his mind and refused to show 
it to me, saying that it was toofemall He told me that 
he had no other place to give me but that of Dr. Whit- 
man, whom he intended to send away. I declared to 
him a second time, the same as the Bishop had done at 
the meeting, that I would not have the place of Dr. 
Whitman. I then went immediately to the camp of 
Young Chief, to notify him that I would take his house, 
since I was unable to procure a place from Tilokaikt. 

I returned to the Fort on the 10th, and on tlie 11th 
Eev. Mr. Eousseau left with his men to repair the house, 
and having come back on the 26th, announcing that the 
house was in a condition to be occupied, it was imme- 
diately decided that we should go and lake our lodging 
in it the next day. The same day we received, at the 
Fort, a visit from Mr. Spalding, the Presbyterian mission- 
ary of the Nez Perces, whom we acquainted, during the 
conversation, with our intention of leaving the next day 
for our mission on the Umatilla river. 

The next day, I^ovember 27th, we took our leave of 
Mr. McBean and his family to go to the Umatilla, where 
we (the Bishop, his Secretary and mj'self) arrived 
towards evening. Eev. Mr. Eousseau remained behind 
with the wagons and bagixage, and did not arrive until 
some days after. 



The following is the substance of a letter which I ad- 
dressed to Col. Gilliam, containing a relation of the 
events which immediately followed our arrival : — 

Fort Walla Walla, March 2, 1848. 
CoL. Gilliam : — 

Dear Sir : — I have the honor to reply to the request 
which you have been pleased to make me lately. It af- 
fords me great satisfaction to be able to oblige you by 
giving you a detailed account of the facts relative to the 
terrible event of the 29th November, 1847, which hap- 
pened within my knowledge. 

You know, sir, that eight Catholic missionaries, at the 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 49 

bead of whom was the Bishop, A. M. A. Blanchet, ar- 
rived at Fort Walla Walla at the beginning of last 
autumn, with the intention of devoting themselves to 
the instruction of the various tribes of Indians in this 
part of Oregon. Some were located north of the Colum- 
bia, and it was decided that the others should pass the 
winter with the Cayuses at the camp of Young Chief, 
because this chief had uot ceased for sevej-al years to ask 
for priests, and had offered his house for their accommo- 
dation. But, when we arrived at the Fort, he was away 
on a hunting expedition, from which he did not return 
till late in the fall, and for that reason the commence- 
ment of our mission was retarded until the 27th .of No- 
vember. 

During our stay at the Fort wo saw Dr. Whitman sev-. 
eral iimos, and though at first he seemed violently 
opposed to us, telling the Bishop frankly that he would 
do all he could agtiiiist him, yet upon further acquaint 
tance he seemed to regard us with a more favorable eye, 
and when the care of the Ca.yuse mission was given to 
me b}^ the Bishop, I indulged the hope of being able to 
live upon good terms with the Doctor. 

Tbe day before our departure from the Fort for the 
Umatilla, we dined w^ith Mr. Spalding and Mr. Eodgers, 
and I assure you that it was a satisfaction to me to make 
the acquaintance of those gentlemen. I then indulged 
the hope more strongly than ever of living in peace with 
them all, which was in perfect accordance with my natu- 
ral feelings; for those who are acquainted with me knov\' 
that i have nothing more at heart than to live in }')eace 
with all men, and that, exempt from prejudices, I am 
disposed to look with an equal eye upon the members of 
all religious denominations, to do all I can for the good 
of all without regard to the name by which they may 
be called. 

On Saturday, November 27th, I left the Fort in com. 
pany with the Bishop and his Secretary for our mission 
on the Umatilla, twenty-five miles from Dr. Whitman's. 
We had scarcely arrived in the evening, when, on going 
to see a sick person, I learned that Dr. Whitman and 
Mr. Spalding were en route for my mission, Dr. Whitman 



navino; 



been called to attend to the sick 







50 thp: whitman massacre, 

The next day, being Sunday, we were visited by Dr, 
Whitman, who remained but a few minutes at the house, 
and appeared to be much a,2jitated. Being invited to 
dine, he refuged, saying that he feared it would be too 
late, as he had twenty-five mile.s to go, and wished to 
reach home before night. On parting he entreated me 
not to fail to visit him when I would pa&s by his mis- 
sion, which I very cordially promised to do. 

On Monday, 29th, Mr. Spalding took supper with us, 
{ind appeared quite gay, During the conversation he 
happened to say that tlie Doctor vvas unquiet, that the 
Indians were displeased with him on account of the sick- 
ness, and that even he had been informed that the mur-. 
/^erer (an Indian) intended to kill liim; but he seemed 
not to believe this, and suspected as little as we did what 
was taking place at the mission of the Doctor. 

Before leaving Fort Walla Walla it had been decided 
that after visiting the sick people of my mission on the 
Umatilla, I should go and visit those of Tilokaikt's camp 
for the purpose of baptising the infants and such dying 
adults as might desire this iavor; and the Doctor and 
Mr. Spalding having informed me that there were still 
many sick persons at their missions, I was confirmed 
in this resolution, and made preparations to go as soon 
as possible. 

After having finished baptising the infants and dying 
adults of my mission, I left on Tuesday, the oOth of ISTo- 
vembcr, late in the afternoon, for Tilokaikt's camp, 
where 1 arrived between seven and eight o'clock in the 
evening. It is impossible to conceive my surprise and 
consternation when, upon my arrival, I learned that the 
Indians the day before had massacred the Doctor and 
his wife, with the greater part of the Americans at the 
missipn. I passed the night \vithout scarcel}^ closing my 
eyes. Early the next morning I baptised three sick 
children, two of whom died soon after, and then hasten- 
ed to the scene of death to oifer to the widows and 
orphans all the assistauec in my power. I found five or 
six women and over thirty children in a condition de^ 
plorable beyond description. Some had just lost their 
husbands, and the others their fathers, whom they had 
iieen massacred before their eyes, aaid were expecting 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 51 

every moment to share the same fate. The sight of 
those persons caused me to shed tears, why3h, however, 
I was obliged to conceal, for I was the greater part of 
the day in the presence of the murderers, and closelj^ 
watched b}^ them, and if I had shown too marked an 
interest in behalf of the sufferers, it would only have en- 
dangered their lives and mine; these therefore entreat- 
ed me to be upon my guard. After the first few words 
that could be exchanged under such circumstances, I in- 
quired after the victims, and was told that they were yet 
un buried. Joseph Stanfield, a Frenchman, who was in 
the service of Dr. Whitman, and had been spared by the 
Indians, was en^^aged in washing the corpses, but being 
alone he was unable to bury ^them. 1 resolved to go 
and assist him, so as to render to those unfortunate vic- 
tims the last service in my power to offer them. What 
a sight did I then behold ! Ten dead bodies lying 
here and there, covered with blood and bearing the marks 
of the most atrocious cruelty, — some pierced with balls, 
others more or less gashed by the hatchet. Dr. Whit- 
man had received three gashes on the face. Three 
o'thers had their skulls crushed so that their brains were 
oozing out. 

It was on the 29th of November, between two and 
three o'clock in the afteraoon, while all the people at the 
Doctor's house were busy, that the Indians with their 
arms concealed beneath their blankets, introduced tliejn- 
selves successively into the yard, and in an instant exe- 
cuted their horrible butchery. Three or four men (Amer- 
icans) only were able to escape. 

The ravages which sickness had made in their midst, 
together with the conviction which a half-breed, named 
Jo. Lewis, had succeeded in fixing upon their minds that 
Dr. Whitman had poisoned them, were the only motives 
I could discover which could have prompted them to 
this act of murder. This half breed had imagined a con- 
vei'sation between Dr Whitman, his wife, and Mr. 
Spalding in which he made them saj' that it was neces- 
sary to hasten the death of the Indians in order to get 
possession of their horses and lands. ' If you do not 
kill the Doctor,' said he, ' you will all be dead in the 
spring/ 



62 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

I assure you, Sir, that during the time I was occupied 
in burying the victims of this disaster, 1 was far from 
feeling safe, being obliged to go here and there gatho-ing 
up the dead bodies, in the midst of assassins, whose hands 
were still stained with blood, and who by their manners, 
their countenances, and the arms w^hich they still car- 
ried, sufficiently announced that their thirst for blood 
wes yet unsatiated. Assuming as composed a manner 
as possible, I cast more than one glance behind at the 
knives, pistols, and guns, in order to assure myself 
whether there were not some of them directed towards 
me. 

The bodies were all deposited in a common grave, 
wlii:di had been dug the day previous by Joseph Stan- 
field; and before leaving I saw that they were covered 
with earth. But I have since learned that the grave 
not having been soon enough enclosed, had been mo- 
lested by the wolves, and that some of the corpses had 
been devoured by them. 

" Having buried the dead, I hastened to prepare for 
my return to my mission, in order to acquaint Mr. 
Si)alding with the danger which threatened him; because 
on Monday evening, when he supped with us, he had 
said that it was his intention to return to Dr. Whitman's 
on the following Wednesday or Thursday ; and I wished 
to meet him in time to give him a chance to escape. 
This I repeated several times to the unfortunate widows 
of the slain, and expressed to them my desire of being 
able to save Mr. Sj)ahling. Before leaving the women 
and children I spoke to the son of Tilokaikt, who seemed 
to be acting in the place of his father, asking him to 
promise me that they should not be molested, and that 
he would take care of them. 'Say to them,' said he, 
' that they need fear nothing, they shall be taken care 
of, and well treated. I then left them, after saying what 
I could to encourage them, although I was not mj^self 
entirely exempt from fear upon their account. 

" On leaving the Doctor's house, I perceived that the 
son of Tilokaikt followed me in company with my inter- 
preter, who himself was an Indian, his friend and his 
relative by his wife. I did not think that he had the In- 
tention of coming far with us ; I believed that he was 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 53 

merely coming to the river to point out some new place 
for crossing, and that he would afterwards return. But 
when, after having crossed the river, he still continued 
going on with us, I began strongly to fear for Mr, 
Spalding. I knew that the Indians were angry with all 
Americans, and more enraged against Mr. Spalding than 
any other. But what could I do in such a circumstance? 
I saw no remedy; I could not tell the Indian to go back, 
because he would have suspected something, and it would 
have been worse ; I could not start ahead of him, be- 
cause he had a much better horse than mine : I resolved 
then to leave all in the hands of Providence. Fortu- 
nately, a few minutes after crossing the river the inter- 
preter asked Tilokaikt's son for a smoke. They pre- 
pared the calumet, but when the moment came for light- 
ing it, there was nothing to make fire. ' You have a 
pistol,' said the interpreter, ' fire it and we will light.' 
Accordingly, without stopping, he fired his pistol, re- 
loaded it and fired it again. He then commenced smok- 
ing with the interpreter without thinking of reloading 
his pistol. A few minutes after, while they were thus 
engaged, in smoking, I saw Mr. Spalding come galloping 
towards me. In a moment he was at my side, taking me 
by the hand, and asking for news. ' Have you been to 
the Doctor's?' he inquired. ' Yes,' I replied. ' What 
news,' ' Sad news?'* ' Is any person dead?' ' Yes, Sir.' 
' Who is dead, is it one of the Doctor's children?' (He 
had left two of them very sick.) ' No,' I replied. ' Who 
then is dead?' I hesitated to tell him. ' Wait a mo- 
ment,' said I, ' I cannot tell you now.' While Mr. Spald- 
ing was asking me those difi'erent questions, I had 
spoken to my interpreter, telling him to entreat the In- 
dian in my name, not to kill Mr. Spalding, which I 
begged of him as a special favor, and hoped that he 
would not refuse it to me. I was wating for his answer, 
and did not wish to relate the disaster to Mr. Spalding 
before getting it, for fear that he might by his manner 
discover to the Indian what I had told him; for the 
least motion like flight would have cost him his life and 
probably exposed mine also. The son of Tilokaikt, 
after hesitating some moments, replied that he could not 
take it upon himself to save Mr. Spalding, but that he 



54 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

would go back and consult the other Indians y and so he 
started back immediately to his camp. I then availed 
myself of his absence to satisfy the anxiety of Mr. Spald- 
ing. I related to him what had passed. ' The Doctor is 
dead,' said I, ' the Indians have killed him, together M'ith 
his wife and eight other Americans, on Monday last, the 
29th, and I have buried them before leaving to-day.' 
' The Indians have killed the Doctor!' cried Mr. Spald- 
ing; .... they will kill me also, if I go lo the camp! 
' I fear it very much,' said I. ' What then shall I do?' 
' I know not ; I have told you what has happened, decide 
now for yourself what you had best do ; 1 have no ad- 
vice to give you in regard to that.' ' Wh}^ has that In- 
dian started back?' he inquired. ' I begged him to spare 
your life,' said I, ' and he answered me that he could not 
take it upon himself to do so, but that he would go and 
take the advice of the other Indians about it ; that is the 
reason why he started back. Mr. Spalding seemed 
frightened and discouraged. ' Is it possible ! Is it pos- 
sible !' he repeated several times ; ' they will certainly 
kill me; and he was unable to come to any decision. 
But what could have prompted the Indians to this ?' he 
inquired. ' I know not,' said I, ' but be quick to take a 
decision, you have no time to lose. If the Indians should 
resolve not to spare your life, they will be here very 
soon, as we are only about three miles from their camp.' 
' But where shall I go ?" ' I know not, you know the 
country better than I; all that I know is that the 
Indians say the order to kill Americans has been sent 
in all directions. Mr. Spalding then resolved to fly. He 
asked me if I was willing to take charge of some loose 
horses that he was driving before him. I told him that 
I could not for fear of becoming suspicious to the 
Indians. I told him, however, that if the interpreter 
was willing to take them under his charge at his own 
risk, he was perfectly at liberty to do so. To this the 
interpreter agreed. I gave Mr. Spalding what provisions 
I had left, and hastened to take leave- of him, w^ishing 
him with all my heart a happj^ escape, and promising to 
pray for him. In quitting him L was so much terrified 
at the thought of the danger with which he was threat- 
ened, that I trembled in every limb, and could scarcely 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 55 

hold myself upon my horse. I left him with my inter- 
preter, to whom he ai>;ain put many questions, and w^ho 
pointed out to him a by-road which he would be able to 
follow with most safety-. I thought he advised him to 
go to the Dalles, but I am not certain. Mr. Spalding 
still continuing to ask new questions, and hesitating to 
leave, the interpreter advised him to hasten his flight, 
and he had left him a moment before he had decided to 
quit the road. The interpreter had not left Mr. Spald- 
ing more than twenty minutes when he saw three armed 
Cayuscs riding hastily tov\'ards him, who were in pursuit 
of Mr. Spalding. Upon coming up to the interpreter 
they seemed much displeased that I had warned Mr. 
Spalding of their intentions, and thereby furnished him 
with an opportunity to escape. ' The priest ought to 
have attended to his own business and not to have inter- 
fered with ours,' they said in an angry tone, and started 
immediately in pursuit of him. And they must have in- 
evitably overtaken him had not the approaching dark- 
ness of the night and a heavy fog that happened to fall 
down prevented them from discovering his trail, and 
forced them to return. 

I had continued mj^ route quite slowly, so that it was 
dark when I reached th-e Spring on Marron's Fork I 
dismounted for a moment to drink, and on mounting my 
horse was somewhat alarmed fo hear a horseman coming 
at full sj^eed in our rear. I called to the interpreter and 
told him to speak and inform him who we were. The 
Indian recognised the name of the interpreter, and ap- 
proached him and spoke amicably to him, and fired off 
his pistol. It was the son of Tilokaikt, the same w^ho 
had returned to camp to consult the Indians about the 
fate of Mr. Spalding. He continued to accompany us 
until we reached the camp of Camaspelo, on the TJma- 
tilla river, and there I learned from the interpreter that 
he had come to inform Camaspelo of the horrible event. 

After six da^'S of danger, privations and fatigue, Mr. 
Spalding was enabled to reach his family at his mission 
amongst the Nez Perces, as you have seen from his letter 
to the Bishop of Walla Walla, since published in the 
Oregon Spectator. I was truly happy to learu that Mr. 
Spalding was out of danger, and I thanked God sincerely 



56 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

for having made me instrumental in saving the life of a 
fellow-creature at the peril of my own. 

Some days after an express reached us from the Fort, 
informing us that our lives were in danger from a por- 
tion of the Indians who could not pardon me for having 
deprived them of their victim; and this was the only 
reason which prevented me from fulfilling [the promise 
which I had made to the widows and orphans of return- 
ing to see them, and obliged me to be contented with 
sending my interpreter. 

You are acquainted, Sir, with the events which fol- 
lowed, — the murder of two sick men, who were brutally 
torn from their beds and their throats cut ; the murder 
of the young American when returning from the mill; 
the good fortune of the other Americans at the mill, 
who owed their escape to a single Indian, (Tintinmitsi,) 
while the others wished to kill them; the violation of 
three young girls; the letter of Mr. Spalding, which oc- 
casioned the assembling of the chiefs at the Catholic 
mission, and their asking for peace ; the| arrival of Mr. 
Ogden and the deliveay of the captives. 

Such are, Sir, the facts and circumstances relative to 
this deplorable event, the relation of which I thought 
would be of a nature to interest you. I am pleased with 
the confidence you have shown me by asking this relation 
at my hands, and thank you sincerely for the same. I 
thank you more especially for the opportunity you 
have given me of presenting to you a full and candid ex- 
position of my conduct and intentions in thecircnm- 
stances so dangerous and so delicate in which I acci- 
dentally found myself involved. 

With sentiments of the highest consideration and re- 
spect, 

I have the honor to be, Sir, 

Your most ob't humble ser't, 
J. B. A. Brouillet, Priest, 

Yicar-General of Walla Walla. 



I arrived at the mission on Thursday moi-ning, 2d of 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 57 

December, and announced to the inmates the frightful 
tidini^s which were yet unknown to them. 

On the 3d the Bishop called for the Young Chief and 
bis brother, Five Crows, in order to express to them 
bow deeply he had been pained by the news of the hor- 
rible affair at Wailatpu, and to recommend to their care 
the widows and orphans, as well, as the men, who had 
survived the massacre. They protested they gave no 
consent to what had happened at Wailatpu, and prom- 
ised to do all in their power for the survivors. 
^ Some days after we learned that a young man, who 
had been engaged working at a saw-mill some twenty 
miles from the establishment of the Doctor, with some 
other Americans, had been killed on his return from the 
mill to the Doctor's, and that the Indians intended to 
kill the others. 

On the 10th we received the painful intelligence that 
two other young men, who, being sick, had been spared 
by 'the Indians at the time of the first massacre, had 
since been torn from their bed and cruelly butchered. 
We learned at the same time that the other men be- 
lono-ing to the mill had been spared and brought to the 
Doctor's for the purpose of taking care of the women 

and children. , , , ^- ^• 

On the 11th of December we had the affliction to 

hear that one of the captives had been carried off from 

the Doctor's house by the order of Five Crows, and 

brought to him; and we learned, that two otheis had 

been violated at the Doctor's house. 

On the 16th two Nez Perce chiefs (Inimilpip and iip- 

ialana'hkeikt) brought us the following letter* from Mr. 

Spalding: — 

Clear Water, Dec. 10th, 1847. 

To the Bishop of Walla Walla or either of the Catholic 
priests : 

Eeverend and dear friend,— i 

This hasty note may inform you that I am yet alive 

through the astonishing mercy of God. The hand of 

«-We had reason to be astonished at that confidence of those Indians, as 
we had bad as yet no opportunity of seeing any one of the Nez Perces since 
our arrival in the country. 



58 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

the merciful God brought me to my family after six 
daj^s and nights from the time my dear friendf fur- 
nished me with provisions, and I escaped from the In- 
dians. Mv daughter is 3^et a captive, I fear, but in the 
hands of our merciful heavenly father. Two Indians 
have gone for her. My object in writing is principally 
to give info^'mation through you to the Cayuses that it is 
our wish to have peace ; that we do not wish the Amer- 
icans to come from below to avenge the wrong; we hope 
the Caynses and the Americans will be on friendly 
terms; that Americans will no more come in their 
country unless they wish it. As soon as these men re- 
turn, I hiTipe, if alive, to send them to the Governor to 
prevent Americans from coming up to molest the Cay- 
uses for what is done, I know that you will do all in 
your power for the relief of the captives, women and 
children, at Wailatpu ; you will spare no pains to ap- 
pease and quiet the Indians. There are five Americans 
here, my wife and three children, one 3'oung woman, 
and two Frenchmen. We cannot leave the country 
without help. Our help under God is in your hands 
and in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company. Can 
help come from that source? Ask their advice and let 
me know. I am certain that if the Americans should 
attempt to come it would be likely to prove the ruin of 
us all in this upper country, and would involve the 
country in war: God grant that thc'y may not attempt 
it. At this moment I have obtained permission of the 
Indians to write more, but I have but a moment. 
Please send this or co)iy to Governor Abernethy. The 
Nez Perces held a meeting yesterday; they pledged 
themselves to protect us from the Cajnises if they would 
prevent the Americans from com'ng up to avenge the 
murders. This we have pledged to do, and for this we 
beg for the sake of our lives at this place and at Mr. 
Walker's. By all means keep quiet and send no war 
reports, send nothing but proposals for peace. They say 
they have buried the death of the Walla Walla chief's 
son, killed in California. They wish us to bury this 
offence. I hope to write soon to Gov. Abernethy, but as 
yet the Indians are not willing, but are willing that I 

fMy dear friend, because he was yet in the hole, as the Indians said. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 59 

.should send thonQ hints tbroiigh you. 1 hope you will 
send by all meaus and with all speed, to keep quiet in 
the Willamette. Could Mr. Grant come this way, it 
would be a great fovor to us and do good to the Indians. 
1 just leai'u that these Indians wish us to remain in 
the country as hostages of peace. They wish the com- 
munication for Americans to be kept open. We are 
willing to remain so if peace can be secured. It does 
not seem safe for us to attempt to leave the country in 
any way at present. May the God of heaven protect u8 
and finally bring peace. These two men go to make 
peace, and when they return, if successful with the 
Cayuses, they will go. to the Willamette. We have 
learned that one man escaped to' Walla AYalla, crossed 
over the river, and went below. He would naturally 
suppose that all were killed. Besides myself, another 
white man escaped wounded and reached m}^ place three 
days before I did. 

Late Indian reports say that no women except Mrs. 
Whitman, or children, were killed, but all are in cap- 
tivity. Those people, if the Cayuses consent, will bring 
them all to this place. 

I traveled only nights and hid myself days, most of 
the waj- on foot, as m}^ horse escaped from me ; suffered 
some days from hunger and cold and sore feet; had no 
shoes, as I threw ray boots away, not being able to wear 
them. and. also left blankets. God in mercy brought me 
here. From the white man v/ho escaped, and from the 
Indians, we learn that an Indian from the States, who 
was in the employ of Dr, Whitman, was at the head of 
the bloodj^ affair, and helped demolish the windows and 
take the property. We think the Cayuses have been 
urged into the dreadful deed. God in his mercy forgive 
them,. for the}' know not what they do. Perhaps these 
men can bring my horses and things. Please give all 
particulars you. have been able to learn, and what news 
has gone below. How do the women and children fare ? 
How extensive is the war ? In giving this information 
and sending this letter below to Governor Abernethy, 
you will oblige your afflicted friend. I would write di- 



60 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE, 

rectly to the Governor, but the Indians wish me to rest 
till they return. 

Yours in affection and with best wishes, 
(Signed) H. H. Spalding. 

The two Nez Perce chiefs advised the Cayuses to take 
measures for avoiding a war with the Americans. They 
requested the Bishiop to write to Gov. Abernothy, beg- 
ging him not to send up ao army, but rather to come 
himself in the spring and make a treaty of peace with 
the Cayuses, who promised that they wonld tlien release 
the captives of Wailatpu, — promising besides to offer no 
injury to Americans until they heard the news from the 
Willamette. The Bishop told them he was glad of their 
-proceeding, and was disposed to assist them to the ex- 
tent of his power, but that he could not write without 
knowing the opinion of the Caj'uses, and that as poor 
as he could learn this he would send an express below. 
He then encouraged them to see all the chiefs about it. 

On tlie 18th of December Camasj^elo came to sec the 
Bishop, and told him that be had disapproved of all that 
had happened at Wailatpu,*— that the 3'oung men had 
stolen his word. He seemed discouraged, and spoke of 
killing all the horses and of leaving the country, as all 
the Indians expected to die. The Bishop succeeded in 
raising his spirits a liLilc by representing to him the 
possibility of yet obtaining peace, arul told him that the 
chiefs ought to meet as soon as possible, in order to 
come to an understanding among themselves aS to what 
was best to do in this matter; that the more they de- 
laved, the more difficult the arranj^ement of affairs 



w^ould become. 

The 20th being fixed upon as the day of the meeting, 
Camaspelo retired with apparently increased courage, 
promising to notify the other chiefs and secure their at- 
tendance. Accordingly on Monday, 20th December, at 
the Catholic mission, the Ca^nises assembled in Grand 
Council, held by Tawatoe, (or Young Chief,) Tilokaikt, 
Achekaia, (or Five Crows,) and Camaspelo, all the great 
chiefs of the Cayuses, in presence of many other great 
men (second chiefs) of the nation. About 10 o'clock in 
the morning they all entered the mission house. Tho 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 61. 

Bishop was present, together with Messrs. Eousseau, 
Led aire and myself. 

After a deep silence of some minutes the Bishop ex- 
plained to them the object of the meeting. Ho began 
by expressing to them the pleasure he felt in seeing them 
thus assembled for the purpose of deliberating on a most 
important subject — that of avoiding war, which is al- 
ways a gi-eat evil. He told them that in matters of im- 
portance they should always hold a council and consult 
those who might be best able to give them good advice; 
that in giving their advice separately, they were liable 
to be misunderstood, and thereby expose themselves and 
their people to great misfortunes; and he was persuaded 
that if the chiefs had deliberated together they would 
not now have to deplore the horrible massacre of Wai- 
latpu, nor to fear its probable consequences. He told 
them that two Kez Perce chiefs had asked him to write 
to the Great Chief of the Willamette to obtain peace, 
but that he could not do so without the consent of the 
Cayuses ; that the propositions which those chiefs wished 
to send were these : — -Ist. That Americans should not 
come to make war; 2d. That they should send up two 
or three great men to make a treaty of peace; 3d. That 
when these great men should arrive all the captives 
should be released ; 4th. That they would offer no of^ 
fence to Americans before knowing the news from below. 

The Bishop then desired them to speak and to say 
what they thought of these propositions. 

Camaspelo spoke first. He was blind and ignorant, 
and had despaired of the life and salvation of his nation, 
but the words of the Bishop had opened his eyes, con- 
soled and encouraged him ; that he had confidence and 
that he approved the propositions. 

Tilokaikt then rose to say that he was not a great 
speaker, and that his talk would not be long. He then 
reviewed the history of the nation since the arrival of 
the whites* in the country down to the present time. 
He said that before they had been visited b}^ white men 
the Indians were always at war ; that at the place where 
Fort Walla Walla now stood nothing but blood was con- 

* French, or Ilndsou's Bay Company people, 

6 



62 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

tinually seen ; that they had been taught by the whites 
there was a God who forbid men to kill each other ; that 
since this time they had always lived in peace and en- 
deavored to persuade others to do the same. He eulo- 
gised Mr. Pombrun, spoke of a Nez Perce chief who 
had been killed on his way to the States, afterwards of 
the son of Yellow Serpent, who had been killed b}^ Amer- 
icans in California; said that they had forgotten all this. 
He spoke also of Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, and 
finished by saying that since they had forgotten all, ho 
hoped the Americans would also forget what had been 
recently done, that now they were even. He spoke 
nearly two hours. 

Achckaia (or Five Crows) arose only to suggest some 
other propositions vvhich' he wished added to those- al- 
ready announced. 

The Young Chief said but little. He said he vras weak 
and did not feel able to talk long. Ho was in favor of 
the propositions as well as those who had spoken before 
him. 

Edward, the son of Tilokaikt, then came forward, 
bearing in his hand the Catholic I/adder stained with 
blood: he repeated the words which Dr. Whitman had 
used when he showed it to them, one or two weeks be- 
fore he died : " You see this blood! it is to show you that 
now, because you have the priests among you, the comitry is 
going to be covered with blood ! ! You will have nothing now 
but blood r' He then related what had passed, gave a 
touching picture of the afflicted fixmilies in seeing borne 
to the grave a father, a mother, a brother, or a sister; 
spoke of a single member of a family who had been left 
to weep alone over all the rest who had disappeared. 
He stated how and for what the murder had been com- 
mitted, entered in the most minute details, avoiding, how- 
ever, to give any knowledge of the guilty ; repeated the 
words which Jo Lewis said had passed between Dr. 
Whitman, his wnfe, and Mr. Spalding, and finally spoke 
of the pretended declaration of Mr. Kogers at the mo- 
ment of his death : " that Dr. Whitman had been poison- 
ing the Indians." 

After having deliberated together the chiefs concluded 
by adding something to the propositions of the JSTez Per- 
ces, insisting principally upon the reasons which they 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 63 

pretended ought to excuse their action, and requested 
the Bishop to send to the Governor in their name the 
foUowing manifesto : — 

" The principal chiefs of the Cayuses in council assem- 
bled state : That a young Indian who understands En- 
glish, and who. slept in Dr. AVhitman's room, heard the 
Doctor, his wife, and Mr. Spalding, express their desire 
of possessing the lands and animals of the Indians ; that 
he stated also that Mr. S])alding said to the Doctor: 
' huny giving medicines to the Indians that they may 
soon die;' that the same Indian told the Cayuses: 'if 
you do not kill the Doctor soon, 3-ou will all be dead 
before spring;' that they buried six Cayuses on Sunday, 
November :^8th, and three the next day ; that the scho(»l- 
master, Mr. Eodgers, stated to them before be died, that 
the Doctor, his wife, and Mr. Spalding poisoned the In- 
dians; that for several 3'eais past the}^ had to deplore 
the death of their chiklren, and that according to these 
reports they were led to believe that the whites had un- 
dertaken to kill them all; and that these were the 
motives which led them to kill the Americans. 

The same chiefs ask at present — 

1st. That the Americans may not go to war with the 
Cayuses. 

2d. That they may forget the latelj- committed mur- 
ders, as the Cayuses will foi-get the murder of the son of 
the great chief of Walla Walla, committed in California. 

3d. That two or three great n en may come up to con- 
clude peace. 

4tli. That as soon as these great men have arrived and 
concluded peace, they may take with them all the 
women and children. 

5th. They give assurance ihat they will not harm the 
Americans before the arrival of these two or three great 
men. 

6th. They ask that Americans may not travel any 
more through their country, as their young men might 
do them harm. 

Place of Tawatowe, Youmatilla, 

2Uth December, ls47, f Tilokatkt, 



(Signed) ^ Camaspklo, 

^ ^ ^ I Tawatowe, 

i^ ACHEKAIA. 



64 THE WHITMAN xMASSACRE. 

The Bishop accompanied this manifesto with a letter 
addressed to the Governor, which concluded in these 
terms: "It is sufficient to state that all these speeches 
went to show, that since they had been instructed by the 
whites they abhorred war, and that the tra^-edy of the 
29th had occurred from an anxious desire of self-preser- 
vation, and that it was the reports made against the 
Doctor and others which led them to commit this act. 
They dtvsire to have the past forgotten and to live in 
peace as before. Your Excellency has to judge of the 
value of the documents which I have been requested to 
forward to you. Nevertheless, without having the least 
intention to influence one way or the other, I feel myself 
obliged to tell you, that by going to war with the Cay- 
uses, you will likely have all the Indians of this country 
against you. Would it be for the interest of a young 
colony to expose herself? That, you will have to decide 
with your Council. 

Before taking leave of the Chiefs, the Bishop said to 
them all publicly, as he had also done several times pri^ 
vately, that those who had taken American girls should 
give them up immediately. And then all entreated Five 
Crows to give up the one whom lie had taken, but to no 
purpose. 

Mr Ogden had arrived at Fort Walla Walla on the 
lijih of December, in the evening, witii the intention of 
obtaining from the Cayuses the release of all the Amer- 
ican prisoners He had sent immediately an exjiress to 
the Cayuses, notifying the chiefs to assemble without de- 
lay at Walla Walla The same express had brought a 
letter to the Bishoj) requesting him to attend theassfm- 
b!y of the chiefs. The Bishop being unable to attend 
then, I went !0 Fort Walla Walla on the 21st, in com- 
])any with an Indian chief, to meet Mr. Ogden, atid to 
inform him of what liad passed in the Cx)uncil held the 
day before at the mission. It was the first time that 
any one of us had dared to leave the Young Chiefs 
camp since the burial of the murdered, and Mr. Spald- 
ing's escape, for fear of the Indians of Tilokaikt's 
camp. 

At the renewed request of Mr. Ogden, the Bishop 
came to the Fort next day, and on the 28d the assembly 



THE AVHITMAN MASSACRE. 65 

convoked by Mr. 0<^'den took place. The Young Chief 
and Tilokaikt, with a dozen young men, were in the 
room, and at half past nine, A. M., Mr. Ogden opened 
the meeting. He spoke forcibly against the massacre, 
threw the whole blame upon the chiefs, who, he said 
knew not how to restrain their young men. He told 
them it was useless to have chiefs if they arc not 
listened to. He made them understand that he did not 
come on the part of the Americans ; that he had loft 
Vancouver before they knew wdiat had passed at Wail- 
atpu ; that he knew the Cayuses, and had been known 
by them a long time; that the Fi-ench people (Hudson's 
Bay Company) had never deceived them ; that he hoped 
they would listen to his w^ords;.that the Company did 
not meddle with the affairs of the Americans; that there 
were three parties, the Americans on one side, the Cay- 
uses on the other, and the French people and the priests 
in the middle; that the Company was there to trade and 
the priests to teach them their duties; listen to the 
priests, said he several times, listen to the priests, they 
will teach you how to lead a good life; the priests do 
not come to make war, they carry no arms, tliey carry 
but their crucifixes,* and with them they cannot kill. 
He insisted particularly, and at several times, upon the 
distinction necessary to be made betw^een the affairs of 
the Company and those of the Americans. He said to all 
the Cayuses that they had Chiefs to whom they ought to 
listen ; that the young men w^ere blind, and their chiefs 
should not allow them to do as they pleased. He told 
them that he had come with a charitable design ; that 
he demanded of the chiefs that they should give up to 
him all the Americans who were now captives; but that 
they should understand well that he did not promise 
them that the iVmerieans would not come to make war; 
he promised them only that he would speak in their 
favor. H' they would release the captives he would give 
them fifty blankets, fifty shirts, ten guns, ten fathoms of 
tobacco, ten handkerchiefs and one hundred balls and 
powder. 

The Young Chief thanked Mr. Ogden for the good 
advice he had given them and approved of what he had 

The Oblats, who constantly carry a crucifix on their breast, were present. 



QQ THE WHITMAiN MASSACRE. 

said, but in regard to the captives he said that it 
belonged to Tiiokaikt to speak as they were on his 
lands. 

Tih)lvaikt then spoke of the harmony that had always 
existed between them and the French people; that the 
French had espoused their daughters, and that they had 
been buried in the same burial ground, etc. He conclu- 
ded by saying that he would release the captives to Mr. 
Ogden, because he was old, and his hair was white, and 
that he had known him a long time, but that one 
younger than Mr. Ogden could not have had them. 

The'Nez Perces (or Sahaptin) came after the Cayuses 
and promised to release Mr. Spalding and all other 
American captives who were with them. 

Mr. Ogden promised them twelve blankets, twelve 
shirts, two guns, twelve handkerchiefs, five fathoms of 
tobacco, two hundred balls and powder, and some knives. 

The Bishop expressed to the Cayuses and Nez Perces 
the pleasure he felt in seeing them willing to release the 
captives. 

They agreed upon the time when the captives shduld 
be at the Port, and the quantit}^ of provisions necessary. 

The Catholic Ladder^ which Dr. Whitnnm had stained 
with blood, was given to Mr. Ogden by an Indian who 
had it In his possession. Mr. Ogden received also at his 
request from another one the ridiculous ladder^ which 
Mr. Spalding had been carrying amongst the Indians 
in opposition to the priests. 

On the 29th the captives of Wailatpu arrrived at the 
Fort to the number of forty-six, who together with five 
already at the Fort made fifty-one. 

The Bishop determined to avail himself of the offers 
of Mr. Ogden, and to descend in the boats that were to 
convey the captives. 

January 1st, 1848, Mr. Spalding arrived at the Fort 

■••A picture representinf!^ two mads towards heaven — a wide one, where 
the Pope is selling indulgences and forgiveness of sins, and the Catholica 
were seen going, and at the upper end of which they were all falling head- 
foremost into hell, and a narrow one where the Protestants were supposed 
to go, but apparently so difhcult to ascend that none were seen ascending 
it. Mr. Spalding had been carrying it among the Indians, and explaining 
it to them for soifle time. 



THE WHITiMAN MASSACRE. 67 

with his family and the other captives, accompanied by 
fifty Nez Perces. 

During the time which had passed from the assembling 
of the chiefs to the arrival of the captives at the Fort, 
Mr. Ogden had not been without inquietude. Divers 
rumors were in circulation among the Indians. It was 
said that an army had ari-ived at the Dalles, and they 
had come to avenge the murders. It was feared that 
these rumors might change the minds of the Indians, 
and cause them to retain the captives. The Indians 
came from time to time to ask if it was true that the 
Americans were at the Dalles. Mr. Ogden t6ld them 
that he knew nothing about it, but that he did not believe 
it. Indeed, it was difficult to believe the Americans 
would decide to come up so soon, knowing that Mr. Og- 
den was in the midst of the Indians, occupied in treating 
for the deliverance of the captives, for it Avas easy to 
suppose that the first news of such a step would' break 
off all negotiations and probably become the signal for 
the general massacre of all tliose unfortunate beings. It 
was certainly the conviction of Mr. Spalding, as ex- 
pressed in his letter to the Bishop, as well as that of all 
the whites at Walla Walhx. 

As soon as Mr. Spalding had arrived, Mr. Ogden de- 
cided that the departure should take place on the follow- 
ing day. 

The morning of the 2nd the Bishop conferred the order 
of priesthood upon two clergymen of the congregation 
of the Oblates, both destined for the Yakima Indians on 
the north side of the Columbia, where they had a mis- 
sion already commenced, and not for the mission of th© 
Nez Perces, as Mr. Spalding has said. At seven o'clock 
the ceremon}^ was over, but in spite of all the diligence 
and activity of Mr. Ogden, they were unable to start 
before halfpast twelve. 

The boats had only left the Fort a few hours with all 
the captives, when fifty armed Cayuse warriors arrived^- 
for the purpose, as they said, of taking and killing Mr. 
Spalding, as they had ascertained that American soldiers 
had arrived at the Dalles on their journey up. -i 

On arriving at the Dalles, Mr. Spalding proved tliat 
the Indians had judged him prettj" correctly, — when; 



68 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

upon hearing his letter read, they said : " He speaks 
well, but it is because he is in a hole!" — for scarcel}^ had 
he put his feet on shore when he said to Major Lee: 
*" Hasten up with your companj^ in order to siir})rise the 
Indians and save the animals of the mission." These 
words were immediately reported to the Bishop by Mr. 
Ogden, who heard them himself He said still more to 
Major Magone; for he designated all the Caynses as 
worthy of death, with the fegble exception of five or six, 
whose names he gave. 

At noon on the 8th the boats arrived at Fort Yan- 
couver. 

On the 10th Mr. Ogden was again en route to conduct 
the captives to Oregon City, where he delivered them 
into the hands of Gov. Abernethy ; to whom he deliv- 
ered also a written account of what he had done for the 
deliverance of the captives, together with Mr. S])alding's 
letter to the Bishop, the manifesto of the Cayiise chiefs, 
and the Bishop's letter to the Governor that accompa- 
nied said manifesto. And as the editors of the Oregon 
Spectator wished to publish bitt a part of Mr. Spalding's 
letter, Mr. Ogden told them that they should print the 
whole of the letter or no part of what he had given 
them for that purpose; they consented reluctantly to 
publish the whole. 

On the 15th the Bishop, was at St. Paul's Mission, 
Willamette. 

After the departure of the Bishop I had remained 
alone with Mr. Leclaire at the mission on the Umatilla, 
where we continued to reside until the 20th of Febru- 
ary, in continual anxiety, between the fear of war and 
the hope of peace. Indian reports of all kinds were in 
circulation every day, saying tiiat there were troops 
already at the I)alles, that they had fought with the In- 
dians of that country, and that they had destroyed en- 
tire villages. On the other hand, prudence and the in- 
terest of the colony seemed to us to demand that the 
Governor should not disregard the propositions of the 
Indians, but that he should enter into negotiations of 
peace with them. A letter from Mr. Ogden would have 
removed our uncertainty; for, on the delivery of the 
captives, he promised the Indians that he would exert 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 69 

liiniself in their behalf to secure peace with the Ameri- 
can!^, and that as soon as the Government had decided, 
whether for peace or for war, he would send them an 
express to Fort Walla Walla to apprise ihem of the re- 
sult. But this express came not. The Indians beij;an to 
suspect that Mr. Ogden had betrayed them. His letter, 
by accident, did not arrive until after the first engage- 
ment between the troops and the Cayuses Had it 
arrived in time, it would probably have prevented the 
engagement and induced the Ca^'uses to accept peace 
upon the terms offered by the Government. 

In the midst of so much uncertainty we desired to 
witiidraw from among the Cayuses, but to do this a good 
reason was necessary that could satisfy the Indians, and 
this reason w^e had not. I had promised to remain with 
them as long as they were at peace, but had told them 
that I should retire as soon as war should be declared. 
I was obliged to keep my word with them. 

However, on the 19th of February, the Cayuses hav- 
ing gone to meet the American troops, we had a right to 
consider war as inevitable, if not already declared ; and 
from this moment my word was disengaged. We there- 
fore made choice of the first opportunity that presented 
itself for retiring, and on the next day w^e departed for 
Foi't Walla Walla, whei-e we remained until the 18th of 
March. A few da^^s after our de}>arture the Cayuses 
burned our house and destroyed tlie i)roperty ^ve had 
left among them. 

On the loth of March, the Commissioners aj»pointed 
to treat foi- peace witli the Indians, being about to de- 
scend to Willamette, we availed ourselves of the oppor- 
tunity, and descended w^ith them, accompanied by the 
missionary Oblates of Yakima river. 

The Superintendent of Indian Affairs having issued, on 
the 15th of June, an order to stop all tl e nnssionary 
labors among the Indians, w^e made no effort to rees- 
tablish our mission among the Cayuses, but deferred it 
until more favorable circumstances. 



70 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 



CHAPTER V. 

Snmmary of the principal accusations made against the 
Catholic Clergy of Walla Walla, by Mr. Spalding and 
others, roith an ansiver to each of them. 

Mr* SjKilding stated in the Oregon American and else- 
where : 

1st. That the massacre of Wailatpu had been com- 
mitted by the Indians in hatred of the heretics, as Pj-o- 
testants only, and no Catholics, were killed, and insinua- 
ted that it had been committed at the instigation of the 
priests. 

2nd. That the priests baptised the children and fam- 
ilies of the murderers, and the murderers themselves im- 
mediately after the massacre, as they had their hands 
«till dripping with the warm blood of the murdered, and 
so a])proved the massacre. 

3rd. That the Bishop and the priests were going and 
xjomingthrougli the country, and resided among the mur- 
derers unmolested and appearing to feel in safety, and 
gave it as a new proof that they had had a hand in the 
massacre. 

4th. That soon after the massacre the priests were 
making preparations to begin new stations, and to pursue 
with renewed etforts those already begun; and that they 
had settled at Wailatpu immediately after the departure 
of the captives. 

5th. That neither the Bishop nor any of his priests 
went near the captives of Wailat])u after the baptism of 
the murderers, and they concluded they had no comj^as- 
fiion nor charity for them. 

6th. That the Eoman Catholic priests had offered a 
great price to Dr. Whitman for his station, but he re- 
fused to sell it: they had told him again to fix his price 
and they would pay it, but he had i-efused obstinately to 
sell ; and they concluded the priests were determined to 
have it by any means. — (Mr. John Kinzay, in the Oregon 
American.) 

71 h. That some of the priests, who were at Walla 
Walla, did not offer their beds to Mr. Osborne's wife, 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE, 71 

while she Avas sick ; that they gave neither blankets nor 
food to Mr. Osborne when he started for the purpose of 
looking up his family, and that they did not prevent him 
from starting with his family for the river (Umatilla).-— 
(Mr. Osborne, in the Oregon American.) 

8th. That the Bishop of Walla Walla had come with 
his priests into a country where there was no church or 
Catholic station, and no stationary priest, but that was 
entirely occupied by Protestant missionaries, the most 
of whom had worked there peaceably for eleven years. — 
(Mr. Spalding) 

9th. That Jo. Lewis, Joseph Stantield, and Nicholas 
Finlay, who had been seen plundering, were Catholics, 
and from that concluded against Catholics in general. — 
(Mr. Spalding.) 

10th. That the priests neglected to have the bodies of 
the victims of the massacre buried, when they had the 
facilities of doing so. — (Verbal reports, attributed to Mr. 
Spalding.) 

11th. That the Bishop neglected to give to Mr. Spald- 
ing some info^-mation which he asked in regard to his 
daughter and the other captives. — (Mr Spalding.) 

12th. That a young American was kjUed at Wailatpu 
at 2 o'clock p. M., on Tuesday, just about the time the 
priest arrived, and insinuated that the priest caused him 
to be killed. — fMr. Spalding.) 

13th. That the priests concerted at Wailatpu with 
Mr. M'Bcan's messengers the letter which he (Mr. 
M'Bean) sent to Fort Vancouver in or'der to deceive the 
public about the true causes of the murder. — (Editor of 
the Oregon Araerican. 

14th. That the Catholic missionaries despised the au- 
thority of the Governor and of the Indian Agent, who 
had commanded them to leave the Indian country. — 
(Editor of the Oregon American.) 

15th. That one of the priests had been met by Mr. 
Spalding in companj^ with an Indian who had the avow- 
ed intention to kill him, and that the Indian, whose pis- 
tol was unloaded, retired to an unobserved place to reload 
it; and insinuated that the intention of that priest was 
to have had him killed b}^ that Indian. — (Mr. Spalding.) 

16th, And, iOnally, that the priests hud told the Indians 



72 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

everywhere that the Protestant missionaries were cans- 
rng them to die, and the Walla WaUa chief in particu- 
lar ; that they were poisoning them; that it was the 
Americans who had brought the measles among them, 
and that God had sent that sickness among them to show 
His hatred against the heretics; and they pointed to that 
as the source from which originated the indirect causes 
of the massacre. — (Mr. Spalding.) 

I will now proceed to rectify those statements and 
give a short answer to each of them : 

Ist. The massacre of Wailatpu has not been commit- 
ted by the Indians in hatred of the heritics. If Ameri- 
cans only have been killed, it is because the war had 
been declared by the Indians against the Americans only, 
and not against foreigners, it was therefore in their 
qualit}^ of American citizens and not as Protestants that 
the Indians killed them : as a proof of this I state the 
fact that two sons of Mr. Manson, a Protestant gentleman 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, who, being Protestants 
as well as their father, were selected by the Indians 
from the American children and sent to Port Walla 
Walla — and as a second proof I will observe that the 
Indians who perpetrated the massacre were all Protest- 
ants, and after the massacre remained Protestants as 
before, and continued to pray after the method that 
their Protestant missionaries had taught them, as Mr. 
Spalding himself affirms.* 

2nd. We never baptised any of the murderers nor 
their families ; such an assertion has been a shameful 
slander brought upon U3 like many others. The only 
thing done in the matter of baptism connected with 
that circumstance is what follows : — As stated in my re- 
lation of the affair to Col, Gilliam, I had gone to Tilo- 
kaikt's camp, without being aware of what had passed 
in its vicinity, for the purpose of baptising the sick chil- 
dren and the dying adults whom I could dispose for 
baptism. On the morning I was there, w^hen about 
starting to pay a visit to the widows and orphans of the 
mission, and to bury the corpses, I inquired after the 

"^Five of those who were hung at Oregon City on the 3d of June, ISoO, 
embraced then the Catholic faith and were baptised by the Archbishop, F. 
N. Blanchet, a few hours before their execation. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

Indians who were dangerously sick and expected to die. 
None wore found in the camp but three young children, 
whom I baptised, and two of them died soon after; two 
of the three were slaves, and I did not learn to whom 
the other child belonged. Nothing more was done. 

Now, no sensible person could suspect that I intended 
to approve of the murderous deed by baptising those 
children, if they only knew what the principles and 
practice of the Catholic Church are in regard to baptism 
of infants. The Churcli teaches that baptism is of abso. 
lute necessity to the salvation of infants as well as of 
adults, and not holding children responsible for the 
faults of their parents or others, she commands her 
niinisters always to baptise them, whatever may be the 
circumstances, in any case of necessity or danger of 
death. Besides, those children were not offered to me 
for baptism by their fathers with their hands dripping 
with blood, and asking for an approval of their deed, 
as has been said ; but it was upon my own request, and 
repeatedly made, that their owners (two of them were 
slaves from other tribes) reluctantly consented to allow 
them to be baptised. 

3d. The goings and comings of the clergy through 
the country- never existed but in the warm imagination 
of Mr. Spalding; and instead of that security which he 
supposed wo felt, some of us trembled from fear very 
frequently. It was three weeks after the massacre that, 
on the urgent request of Mr. Ogden, one of us dared for 
the first time, since the burial of the murdered victims, 
to leave the camp of the Young Chief and go to Walla 
Walla; and then, being the day that followed the coun- 
cil of the Cay uses at the Catholic mission, the Indians 
appeared more quieted than before by the hope of peace, 
which the letter of Mr. Spalding and the words of the 
Bishop had produced in their minds ; and moreover they 
had promised to stop any further hostilities until the 
intentions of the Governrnent were known; and besides, 
that Priest was accompanied by one of the chiefs, w^ho 
could have protected him against any of the young men 
who had bad intentions. Before that time we liad con-* 
sidered it unsafe for us to go at any distance from the 
Young Chiefs camp, on account of the evil dispositions 



74 THS WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

of a portion of the murderers, towards us since Mr, 
Spalding's escape, as some of them could not forgive us 
for having taken their intended victim from their hands, 
and as a letter from Walla Walla bad warned us to be 
on our guard on that account. 

It is an error to say that the priests remained among 
the murderers. This tbcy never did. The Cayuse na- 
tion was divided into three oamps entirely distinct from 
each other, each camp having its own chief, who gov- 
erned his young men as he pleased; each of the chiefs 
were independent of the others, and those three camps 
formed, as it were, three independent states of a small 
federal republic, each of them administering their own 
private affairs as they pleased, without interlerence from 
the others. They were the camps of Tilokaikt, Camas- 
•pelo, and Young Chief and Five Crows together. But it 
was in Tilokaikt's camp, and by his Indians only, that 
Doctor Whitman had been killed : then the Indians of 
that camp only could be called murderers, and even but 
a small portion of them, since twelve or thirteen only 
have been designated as guilt}^ by the army itself, when 
on the spot. Again, we never remained in Tilokaikt's 
camp, but at a distance of twenty-live miles from it, in 
Young Chiefs camp, where some of the people -were 
Catholics, and where nobod}^ had taken part in the mur- 
der. Then it is evidently incorrect to say that we have 
remained among the murderers. 

It is also incorrect to say that we have been" unmolested 
by the Indians, since they burned our house and effects a 
few days after we had started from, among them, and 
about the time the troops were coming up to their 
country. 

4th. It is* asserted that soon after, the massacre the 
priests were making preparations to begin new stations 
and to pursue with renewed efforts those already begun. 
The proof of which undoubtedly is that the Bishop 
started down to the Willamette at the same time as Mr. 
Spalding, taking with him the Superior of the Oblate 
Fathers and another clergyman, and leaving me alone at 
the Umatilla mission with a young clergymaii who was 
jiot a priest yet; and that shortly after, at the lirst op- 
portunity they could get, the remainder of his clergy 
wero following his example- 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. <D 

It is a great falsehood in Mr. Spalding to say that we 
settled at Wailatpu immediately after the departure of 
the captives. For the proof of what I say I refer to all 
the people who lived in the vicinity of Wailatpu aud to 
the army. None of us went, to Wailatpu from the time 
of the burial of those Avho were murdered down to the 
months of June and July, when, during a trip that I hap- 
pened to make to Walla Walla, I bad the pleasure of pay- 
ing a visit to the oiRcei's of the army at Fort Waters, 
formerly Wailatpu. 

5th. No priest went to Wailatpu since the day of the 
burial ; that is true. But what was the reason of their 
not going ? The reason was that on account of Mr. 
Spalding's escape they could not go without exposing 
themselves to a probable death, as they had been often 
warned by the Indians, and also by a letter from Walla 
Walla; and it is a new proof that the priests did not feel 
80 safe among the murderers as Mr. Spalding supposed 
they did. But if they did not go, they did all they could 
from their mission to prevent new misfortunes from fall- 
ing upon them and to ameliorate their situation. As soon 
as^'the Bishop had received the news of the massacre, he 
had •called the chiefs of the camp where he lived and 
recommended to their care the survivors of Wailatpu ; 
and after that time the captives had always abundant 
and good food, and if they had sometimes to suffer in 
some other respects, the Bishop never ceased to exert his 
influence and entreaties with some of the chiefs to put a 
stop to it. He took a gi-eat part in quieting the Indians, 
actively prepared them for the delivery of the captives, 
and heartily co-operated with Mr. Ogden in securing the 
same. 

(5th. In the supposition that we had asked Dr. Whit- 
man to sell us his establishment, it would have proved 
nothing against us, because it was publicly known that 
he had been for years speakinir of leaving the Cayuse 
country; "that he had held himself ready to leave the 
country whenever the Indians as a body wished it," as 
Mr. Spalding says; "that twnce in the last year he called 
the Cayuses together and told them if a majority wished 
he would leave the country at once ;" "that he held hini- 
self ready to sell the Wailatpu station to the Catholic 



76 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

mission whenever a majority of the Cayuses might wish 
it j" and that "he had bought the Methodist mission at 
the Dalles, where he wished to go and live in the spring." 
Under such circumstances it would not have been unna- 
tural to believe that he would have liked to dispose of his 
property the same as any other individual. 

But I affirm that such a demand has never been made 
to Dr. Whitman by any one of us, and I give Mr. Spald- 
ing himself as a witness, when he says: "that he is not 
aware that the Catholic mission ever applied to Dr. Whit- 
man to purchase the VVailatpu station. '^ If such a pro- 
position had ever been made to the Doctor, it was na- 
tural that he would have spoken of it to Mr. Spalding, 
his intimate friend, his fellow-member and associate in 
missionary labors during the fifteen days that he spent 
with him before the massacre. 

7th. As to the seventh complaint brought against some 
priests who were present at Walla Walla when Mr. and 
Mrs. Osborn were there, the following statement given 
by Mr. Stanley, the artist, who happened to be at VValla 
Walla at the time, will throw^ some light upon the mat- 
ter : 

"During my stay at Walla Walla in December iast," 
says Mr. Stanley, "I occupied a room with two or more 
of the Catholic priests ; and iheir beds consisted of tw^o 
blankets with a stick of wood for their pillow. 

i arrived at VValla Walla the 2nd of December, and 
learned from Mr. McBean that Mr. Hall brouglit him the 
first intelligence of the massacre early in the morning of 
the 30th of November — that he was received in the Fort 

in Mr. McBean's private or family room he 

was undecided whether to remain or proceed to Willam- 
ette j feared he would be killed if found by the Cayuses; 
and after consulting Mr. McBean thought he could reach 
the Willamette in safety on the north side of the river. 
He was furnished with a cappo, blanket, powder, ball, 
and tobacco, and Mr. McBean saw him safely across the 
river. 

Mr. Osborn and little son arrived a few hours before 
me, and were received and qiiartered in the Fort. 

Mr. McBean procured fin- him a trusty Walla Walla 
Indian to return with him for his family, but having no 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 77 

horses at the post, I proffered the use of my own until 
he should reach the Company's farm, about twenty miles 
distant, where he was supplied with fresh ones. Had it 
not been for the guide's perseverance Mrs. Osborn and 
children must have perished. Mr. Osborn, despairing of 
finding the place where he had left them, proposed to the 
Indian to return. The Indian said he was told by Mr. 
McBean not to return without finding them, and he con- 
tinued his search until he discovered their concealment. 

They arrived at the Fort early in the evening of the 
3d of December, and Mr. McBean said he would protect 
them with his life. 

They were not allowed to go three days without pro- 
visions, but on the contrary w^ere furnished daily wnth 
such provisions as were used by Mr, McBean and family. 

Mr. McBean proffered a blanket to Mr. Osborn on his 
credit, and I am quite positive the article was not asked 
for by Mr. Osborn. 

(Signed,) J. M. Stanley. 

Oregon City, March 10th, 1848." 

The priosts spoken of by Mr. Stanley were Oblates, be- 
longing to the mission of the north side of the Columbia. 
For their beds at the Fort, as Mr. Stanley states, they 
had but two blankets with a piece of wood for a pillow. 
For their subsistence they depended upon the Fort, where 
they were paying their board. It was then very diffi- 
cult for them to give beds, blankets, or food, w^iich they 
had not at their disposal. Besides, provisions were very 
scarce at the time in the Fort, and the clerk and the 
priests, as well as the others, were all reduced to the 
necessity of living upon horseflesh. If the priests did 
not prevent Mr. Osborn from bringing his family to the 
Umatilla, the reason was that they believed they would 
be safer under the Young Chief's protection than at the 
Fort, where they expected every moment to be attacked, 
without being prepared to oppose a sufficient resistance: 
there were at the Fort only five or six men at most. 

8th. In regard to what has been stated that the Bishop 
of Walla Walla had come into a country where there was 
no church or Catholic station, and no stationary priests, I 
will observe that Fathers Blanchet and Demers, the first 



78 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

Catholic missionaries that came to Oregon, had passed 
by Walla Walla in 1838, where they had stopped a few 
days, and had been visited by the Indians. In 1839 
Father Demers had spent three weeks in teaching the 
Indians and baptising their children. In 1840 he had 
made there a mission so fruitful that the Protestant misr 
sionaries had got alarmed, and feared that all their d?^- 
ciples would abandon them if he continued his missions 
among them. Father De Smet, after visiting the Flat 
Heads in 1840, had come and established a mission among 
them in 1841 ; and from that time down to the arrival of 
th6 Bishop, the Indians of Walla Walla and of the Up- 
per Columbia had never failed to be visited yearly, either 
by Father Demers or by some of the Jesuits, atid those 
annual excursions had procured every year new children 
to the Church. Almost every Indian tribe possessed 
some Catholic member. Among the Cayuses the Young 
Chief and a portion of his camp were professing Cath- 
olicism, and for seven years previous were asking for 
some priests to come and settle among them. The Flat 
Heads, Kallispels, and Couer de' Alenes, possessed each of 
them a station with as man^- (churches, built and 
attended by the Jesuits. The JBishop of Walla Walla 
then, whose jurisdiction extended over the whole part 
of Oregon contained between the Cascades and the 
Eocky Mountains, was far from coming into a field 
totally foreign to him. When he arrived he found more 
flocks and pastors than the American Board had ever 
been able to show on their side. 

As to the assertion that the Protestant missionaries 
had worked there peaceably for eleven years, we know 
what to think of it from the different statements which 
we have seen above. 

9th. I could admit that Jo. Lewis, Joseph Stanfield, 
and Nicholas Finla}', who may have been seen plunder- 
ing, were Catholics, without injuring in the least tho 
cause of Catholicism; because, as in good reasoning it 
is never allowed to conclude from one particularity to 
another particularity nor to a generality j in like man- 
ner, from the guilt of three Catholics it cannot be reas- 
onably concluded that other Catholics are gnilty, nor a 
fortiori that all Catholics are guilty and Catholicism 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 79 

\ 

favorable to the guilt. Mr. Spalding, when he advanced 
so absurd a sophism, did not bear in mind that in the 
present case it could be retorted against him entirel^y to 
his disadvantage. But I prefer to give to every one his 
own, afid to keep for m^^self only what is mine. 

I affirm, then, that Nicholas Finlay, was no Catholic, 
or had ever been one, and I would like Mr. Spalding to 
prove the contrary. Finlay was a poor half-breed, who 
had alwas lived with the Indians, and after their man- 
ners, luibits, ])rinciples and superstitions, and who had 
of the white man nothing but the name. He had never 
been baptised, had never frequented an}^ Catholic 
church, nor received Catholic instruction from any 
priest. On the contrary he was attached to Dr. Whit- 
man, in the neighborhood of whom he generally lived, 
and he followed his instructions. I affirm, in like man- 
ner, that Jo. Lewis was not a Catholic, and according to 
Mr. Spalding he must have been a Protestant; because 
the religion of a man is not the consequence of his 
birth,, but springs from the principles that he has im- 
bibed from the society in which he has lived. Well, ac- 
cording to Mr. Spalding, Jo. Lewis must have been 
raised either in the State of Maine, where there were at 
the time no Catholic churches, no priests, nor any means 
whatever of receiving Catholic instruction, or in some 
other part of the TJnited States, under the care of 
Americans, (generally protestants,) who had taken him 
from among the wild Indians when he was from four to 
five years of age. 

As to Joseph Stanfield, I admit that he was born and 
had been educated a Catholic. But he said himself that 
for twenty years past he had not frequented an}^ Cath- 
olic church, and had not availed himself of the ministry 
ot any priest. He may, during that time, have given up 
the severity of Catholic principles and morality. I do 
not ■ pretend to excuse him; nevertheless he has been 
tried by competent tribunals for the crime he is accused 
of; and I do not know that he has as 3'et been con- 
demned by them. Why should we pretend now to be 
more enlightened and wiser than those tribunals have 
been, and judge him more severely than they have 
done? 



80 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

10th. It is also a slander to sa}'- that the priests have 
neglected to have the bodies of those who were mur- 
dered buried. I refer to all the captives of Wailatpu, 
who saw me for over three hours actively occupied in 
shrouding the corpses and putting them into a common 
grave with my own hands, and taking care that they 
should be covered with earth before I left, and that two 
days only after the massacre. 

11th. When Mr. Spalding complained that the Bishop 
had neglected to give him the information asked in re- 
gard to his daughter and the other captives, he had for- 
gotten that Mr. Ogden wrote to him in lieu of the 
Bishop as well as for himself when he announced to 
him that liberty was secured for him and for the other 
captives, and that he had to be ready to leave the 
country by a certain time that he had fixed upon for 
him. It was the first letter that could be sent to him 
after the receipt of his letter by the Bishop, and it was 
the same Indian who had brought his letter to the 
Bishop that took Mr. Ogden's letter to him. As to in- 
formation relative to the situation of the captives, that 
could be of no particular utility to any one, and as the 
Bishop knew nothing about it except through Indian re- 
ports, he thought that Mr. Spalding would receive more 
correct information from his own Indians, who had been 
at Wailatpu and had themselves seen trie captives, than 
from himself And moreover an express would have 
been very expensive, if one could have been obtained. 

12th. When Mr. Spalding says that I arrived at Wail- 
atpu just about the moment the young American was 
killed, he slanders me again ; since, as he says, the 
young American was killed at two o'clock, P. M., and 
I did not arrive at the Indian camp, until between seven 
and eight o'clock in the evening, without having passed 
by the mission. 

13th. Eev. Mr. Griffin, the Editor of the Oregon Amer- 
ican, is not more correct when he says that I concerted 
a letter at Wailatpu with Mr. McBean's messengers, 
since it was known to all the people of the station that 
Mr. McBean's messengers, who had come in the morning 
that followed the massacre, had started off long before 
the evening for Walla Walla; while I did not arrive at 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. ' 81 

the Indian camp until late in the evening of the same 
day, and at the mission on the next morninu; only. 

14th. It is also incorrect to say that the Catholic mis- 
sionaries despised the authority of the Governor and of 
the Indian Agent, who had commanded them to leave 
the Indian country. 

During the winter, without being in the least ordered, 
to do it, the Catholic clergy of Walla Walla had thought 
it prudent to leave the upper country on accouni of the 
existence of the war. But, in the spring, as it was gen- 
erally thought in the Willamette that the war was at an 
end, and as Indians were urgently asking the priests to 
go back, and also as it was proper for him to tix his res- 
idence within the limits of his ecclesiastial jurisdiction, 
the Bishop notified Governor Abernethy, on the 29th of 
April, of his intention to go back to his diocese, in a let- 
ter in which were the following lines: 

"Sir .... I feel dasirous to go and continue the 
work which we have begun with some success ; I feel 
anxious that circumstances should allow us to return 
back to those Indians who wish to know God as we do, 
in order to adore and love Him from their whole heart; 
and 1 intend to do it as soon as possible. 

•' The two letters, co|)ies of which I have the honor 
to transmit w^ith the present, — one fi'om Tyaies, the 
other from Tawjitowe (Young Chief), asking tlieir mis- 
sionaries to go back to them, — are a proof of their desire 
to gAt instructed. Who would not rejoice, seeing that 
God had inspired them with such good feelings? And, 
tor us, who know all the good that can be done there 
— iiow could we refuse to run to their help ?" 

The Bishop expected to receive an answer from the 
Governor, as a matter of course, but after waiting more 
than a month for that answer, and seeing that Hia Ex- 
cellency did not even acknowledge the receipt of that 
letter, he resolved to fulfil his intentions. He started 
back in the middle of June with his secular clergy for 
the Dalles, for the purpose of settling there and begin- 
ning a mission. And it was ordy a few days after liis 
arrival there that the Superintendent of Indian Affairs 
directed to one member of the clergy a letter that was 
intended for him (the Bishop), prohibiting the continua- 



82 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE 

tion of missionary labors with the Indians east of the 
Cascade mountains. The following is a copy of the let- 
ter, directed on the outside to Rev. Mr. Rosseau, &c., 
and on the inside to Messrs. Bianchet, &c. 

" Fort Wascopom, June 15, 1848. 
"Rev. Messrs. — As Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 
it become/? my duty to inform you, with all due respect 
to your sacred calling, that it is desirable no further 
missionary efforts should be made with any Indians east 
of the Cascade Mountains, until the presence of well or- 
ganised and disciplined troops, under command of Unit- 
ed States officers, shall render such efforts safe and judi- 
cious. At present the relations between the whites and 
the Indiairs are two precarious to allow missionary labors 
with the Indians to be either prudent or effective of good. 
So soon as circumstances will allow, I shall take much 
pleasure in throwing wide the door of missionary labors 
among the natives to all Christian missionaries ; at pres- 
ent, prudence demands that it should be closed against 
all. 

"With much respect, 

" I have the honor to be, Messrs., 
" Your obedient servant, 

'.' H. A. G. Lee, Sup't Ind. Affairs. 
" To Messrs. Bianchet, &c." 



The Bishop and his clergy conformed to that order, 
and suspended all missionary labors among the Indians 
of the Dalles until more favorable circumstances. He 
continued, it is true, to remain upon his claim, and to 
improve it; but in tliat^ as in the rest of his conduct, he 
did not violate the order nor act cantrarj' to the inten- 
tions of the Superintendent, as is evident from the fol- 
lowing letter written to him by Dr. Saffarans, Indian 
Agent for the Dalles. Upon false reports that the Doc- 
tor had received, he had thought it his duty to write to 
the Bishop for some explanations, and immediately after 
receiving the Bishop's answer he wrote in the following 
terms : 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 83 

" Fort Wascopom, J\i\y 20, 1848. 

" My dear Sir : — On the receipt of your letter of yes- 
terda}' I became immediately satisfied that I had been 
misinformed in relation to the tenor of your pursuits at 
present with the Indians. Although my informants 
were impressed with a wrong conception of the labors 
of missionary establishments, they considered it impera- 
tively their duty to inform me according to their under- 
standing, in consequence of which I wrote to you ; though 
I now sincerely hope 3'ou will have the goodness to for- 
give me and m}^ informants for the painlind trouble we 
have given j^ou upon this subject; for I do assure you 
the act \vas not done knowingly through the medium of 
indiscretion, but through wrong and ignorant concep- 
tions of missionary matters. 

" As to the matter -of instructing and explaining to 
the Indians the common precepts of the Bible, there can 
be no objection ; because I do sincerely consider it a most 
magnanimous act in any one to give the poor benighted 
beings all the light and instruction within their power, 
upon the subject of Christianity and civilization ; without 
distinction, however, as to Church or mode of adminis- 
tration, during the present crisis of affairs with them. 

" Now, upoii the point of being compelled to write to 
the Superintendent in relation to missionary establish- 
ments: this part, Sir, 3'ou do most, assuredly misunder- 
stand, because in speaking of missionary establishments, 
it is not to be understood that a house or simply an im- 
provement is means a missionary establishment, nor in 
simply fulfilling religious duties or exercises therein; 
because houses are dedicated to many uses, and that use 
designates the character of the establishment. Conse- 
quently, you must not understand that I, in mj^ previous 
letter, inferred that 3-0U should desist from improving 
your claim ; far from it; because it is most assuredly 
your undoubted right as a man and free citizen of Ore- 
gon to make any and all such improvements as your 
fancy and desires may plan and construct; and by thus 
doing, I consider that you are acting perfectly in accord- 
ance with the letter and spirit of our free and republi- 
can constitution. 

" I beg. sir, that yoii may forgive me for the trouble I 



84 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

have caused yon upon this occasion, and you will over 
oblige your most obedient friend, 

" Henry Saffarans, 

" Indian Agent for Waseoponi, 
" To A. A. M. Blancbet, Bishop of Walla Walla." 

No change has taken place in the state of things since. 

15th. When Mr. Spalding said that he had met a priest 
in company with an Indian who had the avowed inten- 
tion to kill him, I am inclined to say that he could have 
done something better and more worthy a noble and 
grateful heart than to advance so heinous a slander 
against the best friend he ever had. I am the priest 
whom Mr. Spalding met in company with one of the 
murderers. When be met me, I had just started from the 
Doctor's establishment where I had buried with my own 
hands the dead bodies of the unfortunate victims of the 
disaster, as before stated ; where I bad consoled in the 
best manner I could the widows and orphans, and ob- 
tained from that same Indian the promise that they 
would do them no harm and would treat them well ; and 
expressed repeatedly my anxiety for Mr. Spalding, my 
fear that he should come too soon, and would fall, per- 
haps, into the hands of the Indians; and my ardent dc' 
sire of meeting him in time to give him a chance to es- 
cape. For a 2:)roof of that I refer to the captives who 
were then at the Doctor's establishment. At the mo- 
ment of my departure that Indian had joined my inter- 
preter and w^as coming in company with me against my 
will and without my knowing of his intention. His pres- 
ence caused me great uneasiness on Mr. Spalding's account. 
I had wished to find an opportunity to send him back 
and to escape from him, but in vain, when Mr. Spalding sud- 
denly met me and placed me in the mostcriticial situation 
in which I ever found myself, and where I had the good 
fortune to save his life at the evident peril of my own. 

Now is it not ungenerous and inconsistent on the part 
of Mr. Spalding to throw a doubt upon my intentions 
in that circumstance ? If I had entertained bad inten- 
tions against him; if I had wished to have him killed, "as 
he insinuated, would I have warned him of the danger 
that threatened him ? Would I have given him my prO' 



THE WHIT3IAN MASSACRE. 86 

visions and advised him to % witliout delay, as he says 
himself I did ? Strange reasoning this ! " The priest 
told me that the Indians intended to kill me;" that in 
order to escape from their hands, " I had better to run 
off instantlj^;" and so as to furnish me with the means of 
doing so, '• he gave me his meat and bread, and God de- 
livered me Irom the murderers;" then it is dvidcat that 
the priest intended to cause me to be killed I And this 
is nevertheless Mr. Spalding's reasoning, word for word. 

It is not correct to say that the Indian was in my 
company '-with the avowed intention of killing" Mr, 
Spalding. He had, as well as the other Indians, the 
general intention of killing him at the first opportunity, 
it is true ; but such was not the reason that had caused 
him to come with me ; because he did not know nor think 
that Mr. Spalding would come on that day. His inten- 
tion, as I knew afterwards, was to inform his uncle. Cam- 
aspelo, the military chief, of the massacre, and receive 
his orders Besides, he was accompanying me at that 
moment, as other Indiana had done during the day, with- 
out my knowledge of their immediate intentions, and in 
such a way as to keep me in continual apprehension and 
fear. 

It is also untrue to say that that Indian retired to an 
unobserved place to reload ids pistol. Mr. Spalding knew 
better than that, since I had told him that the Indian 
had^^one back to camp to consult about his fate If his 
intentions had been to reload his j^istol, he wonld not 
have wanted more than a few minutes to have loaded it 
and shot Mr.' Spalding, as neither my interpreter nor 
myself could have prevented him for want of arms and 
good horses. But he did not return until two or three 
hours after wiien I was on Marron's Fork. Morever, 
nobody but Mr. Spalding and myself can give a correct 
account of what passed between us at the time. We 
were alone, my interpreter being at some distance from 
us and not hearing our conversation; and I can bear 
testimony that then Mr. Spalding was not in a state fit 
to form a judicious opinion of things or words ; the 
fright and trouble of mind which the knowledge of his 
danger had produced on him, had set him completely 
beside himself. 



86 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

16th. I come now to the last accusation, and one of 
the most malicious that has been made against us : 
^' That the priests had told the Indians everywhere, and 
the Walla Walla chief in particular, that the Protestant 
missionaries were causing them to die ; that they were 
poisoning them; that it was the Americans who had 
brought th^ measles among them; and that God had 
sent that sickness to them to show his hatred against the 
heretics." 

I solemnly affirm that such a thing, nor anything of 
the like, has never been said by any priest to the In- 
dians. I defy any one to prove the contrary ; and a 
few remarks will show what confidence can be prudently 
put hy unprejudiced people in the present accusations 
brought by Mr. Spalding against us. 

First, it is a mere vague and malicious assertion, and 
to support it he has not brought forward the least testi- 
mony, but the supposed reports made to them by two 
Indians, Tintinmitsi and Yellow Serpent. But as to 
those reports I have reason to doubt that they had ever 
been made to him by those Indians ; — many an instance 
has proved to us that more than once Mr. Spalding's 
memory has given way to his imagination. If they have 
been made to hina, I dare say that it has been w^ith a 
view to sound him, as it is a common practice with In- 
dians, and to find out from his answers whether it was 
true or not that the American missionaries were 43ois- 
oning them, as it has been for years the general impres- 
sion among them. And finally, those reports can be of 
no credit, and prove nothing in the cas6. If in most 
part of the States of the Union the testimony of In- 
dians is never admitted as proof against the whites in 
any court of justice, it would be here inconsistent to 
make it the basis of public opinion, and especially when 
it is expressed in such vague and general terms. 

It is evident, besides, that the Doctor and Mr. Spalding 
never believed anything as to the truth of such Indian 
reports, if they ever heard of them. " If Dr. Whitman 
and Mr. Spalding," says the Hon. P. H. Burnett, " be- 
lieved the tales that the Indians were telling them, that 
the priests were persuading them the Doctor was poison-, 
jng them, why. did they not take some steps to investigate 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 87 

the matter, to inquire into the truth of these reports ? 
It required no more than a little honesty, and common 
s€nse, to have enabled them to set the matter beyond 
doubt. When I hear that a neighbor has charged me 
with' a crime, it is my duty to go to him and ask him if 
he has said so. This course is a plain one, and very com- 
mon among honorable men that are not willing to believe 
every slander they hear in the community. When the 
Indian came to the Doctor, and told him that the priests 
were telling them that he was poisoning them, had he 
believed there was even a probability that such was the 
fact, he would have inquired of the Indians: 'What priest 
told you so ? To vdiat Indians did they say so ? If they 
told you so, they told you a falsehood. Now let us go 
and see the priests, and take with us those Indians they 
told these things to, and I will face them down and show 
you that it is false.' This course Avould have been fair 
and just to the priests, to the Doctor, and to the Indians. 
Suppose this course had been taken. The Doctor ishould 
have taken with him the Indians that these things had 
been told to, as well as some of the honorable emigranis 
at his station, and having brought the Indians and the 
priests face to face, he could then have inquired of the 
priests : 'Are these things so V If the priests had in fact 
told the Indians so, and had then denied the fact lo the 
Doctor in the presence of the Indians, it would at once 
have prostrated the influence of the priests with the 
Indians. Dr. VYhitman could have said to the Indians : 
*You see these men are liars; they told you I was ])()ison- 
ing you, and now they deny it. You cannot believe 
anything they tell you.' But suppose the priests had 
udmitted they had told these things to the Indijms, then 
the Doctor could have been prepared for the worst, and 
he would have been able to have exposed these C(»nspir- 
atorsto the world, not by mere Indian hearsay, but • by 
tangible evidences.' On t»ie other hand, su])pose the 
priests had never told these things to the Indians, and 
that the Indians had been telling lies to sound the Doctor 
and try to find out whether he was in fact poisoning 
them, the Indians would have been detected and exposed. 
In every view of the case good would have resulted from 
an investigation. Now Dr. Whitman was a man of good 



88 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE* 

sense and great firmness, and had he believed that these 
reports had auy foundation, he certainly would not l»ave 
been afraid or ashamed to have brought this matter to a 
test that would have settled it." 

The following statement is also somewhat in our behalf 
in this case. I refer to Mr. Thos. McKay's sratement, to 
whose testimony Mr. Spalding has referred. He w^as 
present at the council held at Walla Walla by the Cayuse 
chiefs, when called by the Bishop for the purpose of 
asking them for a piece of land for a mission. He heard 
what accusations the Indians made against Dr. Whitman 
on that occasion, and what the answers made to them by 
the Bishop were: • 

" During the meeting," says he, "Tumsaky said that 
Dr. Whitman was a bad mar> ; that he robbed and pois- 
oned them." The Bishop replied to him ''that his thoughts 
were bad ; tho Doctor did not poivson them nor rob them ; 
he had better banish those thoughts from his mind. You 
do not know the Doctor, he is not a bad man." 

'• One of the chiefs told the Bishop they would send 
the Doctor away very soon, and they would give him 
his house it he wished. The Bishop answered that he 
would not take the Doctor's house; that he did not wish 
them to send the Doctor away, and that there was room 
enough for two missions." 

Now, if the Bishop had formally contradicted the 
Indians in that circumstance, how could it be supposed 
that he should have spoken differently on other occa- 
sions ? He knew how important it was to weigh well 
his answers and words with the Indians, and carefully 
to avoid anytliing that would appear like hesitation or 
contradiction. Besides, he never spoke to the Indians 
but through an interpreter, and generally the i>iter- 
preter of the Fort, ami always in the ]}ublic room, and 
in presence of all the people that wished to hear him. 

The importance of keeping his influence even with 
tlie whites would have then prevented him from saying 
anything against Dr. Whitman and othei's in contradic- 
tion to what he had said on that occasion. And I affirm 
that lie never did ; for a proof of which I refer to the 
people who lived or were at Walla Walla during our 
stay there. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 89 

But there is anotbei- circumstance that, in my opinion, 
can throw i^^reater light on the rratter than anj^hing 
else. It is a conversation that took place between Mr. 
Spalding and Dr. Ponjade, in the Caj^use country, about 
five or six miles at farthest from the place where the 
Catholic mission was afterwards established. It was 
three months before the establishment of that mission, 
and five days before the Bishop (who was'far ahead of 
his priests) passed for the first time on the Cayuse lands, 
on his way to Fort Walla Walla. The reader will judge 
from that conversation what reliance 'can be placed on 
Mr. Spalding's assertions in general, but especially on 
those that engage our attention at present. Let it be 
remembered in perusing the conversation, that there 
were no clergymen yet arrived among the Cayuses, the 
nearest were at least one hundred miles, and the others 
about three hundred miles distant. The conversation 
took place on the 31st of August, and the mission of the 
Cayuses did not begin until the latter part of November. 
Here follows the conversation as related by Dr. Pou- 
jade: 

This is to certify that on the 31st day of August, 1847, 
while on the road to Oregon, I met Eev. H. H. Spald- 
ing at the Willow Spring, at the foot of the Blue Moun- 
tains, and that the following conversation took place 
between him and me at that place : 

He asked me how many wagons were in. our company. 
I answered him, seven. 

H. H. Spalding— Well, you had better wait for a 
larger company. 

J. P. Poujade— Why so ? 

H. H. Spalding — Because the Indians are getting very 
bad. 

J. P. Poujade — Have they done anybody any harm ? 

H. H. Spalding — Yes, they have killed two white men 
at the Dalles. • 

J. P. Poujade — The Americans may be in fault. 

H. H. Spalding — No, it is the Catholic priests, icho 
have established a mission among the Cayuses; and they 
have put the Indians \?p to kill all the American Pro- 
testants on the road to Oregon. 

J. P. Poujade — Impossible ; that is not Christianity, it 



90 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

must be a mistake, because we must love our nei<^bbors 
as ourselves. I have lived thirty years among the 
Catholics in the United States, and I always understood 
the Catholic Church to teach her children to do good 
for evil, and to be cha^-itable by giving good moral ex- 
ample, and I think well oi' the Catholic clergy. And to 
tell you the truth, I am a Catholic; but here is a Pro- 
testant gentleman, Mr. Larkins, who has lived neighbor 
to me twenty years, ask him if ever he knew Catholics 
to kill Protestants. Mr. Larkins answered, No. 

H. H. Spalding' — It is true, I have received fresh news, 
and I understand the Indians had stolen from the whites. 
One Indian was killed by the whites, and the Indians 
killed one white man. Do you know if the dragoons 
are coming or not ? ' 

J. P Poujade— The bill did not pass. 

H. H. Spalding — I am sorry; the Indians are getting 
worse every day for two or three years back. They are 
threatening to turn us out of the mission. A few days 
ago they tore down my fences. And I do not know 
what the Missionary Board of New York means to do. 
It is a fact, we are doing no good. When the emigration 
passes, the Indians all run off to trade, and return worse 
than when we came amongst them. 

And so I left him with his blanket spread, full of one 
thing and another, and he had also many head of horses, 
for the purpose of trading with the emigrants. Around 
us were scattered in the prairies several bands of horses, 
that the Indians pointed out to us as belonging to Dr. 
Whitman. 

(Signed,) John P. Pot/jade. 

I certify to the above conversation, being present at 
the time. 

(Signed,) Anne Poujade. 

"Saint Louis Willamet, Sept. 12, 1848. 

I leave all comments on that conversation to the pub- 
lic. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 91 

Now, 1 have exposed frankly and candidly what I 
consider to have been the true causes of the massacre of 
Wailatpu, wnth the grounds and proofs that support my 
opinion, together with the conduct of the Catholic clergy 
in regard to that whole affair, on one part, and the ma- 
licious and grievous accusations made by Mr. Spalding 
and others against that same Catholic clergy with re- 
gard to that same affair, together with what I consider 
as a plain and full refutation of them, on the other part. 
I leave now the matter before the public, to which it 
belongs attentively to examine and weigh the testimony 
on both sides, and then impartially to decide and pro- 
nounce whether the Catholic clergy are guilty of tho 
atrocious charges brought against them, or whether Mr. 
Spalding and others could have spoken so against the 
Catholic clergy " without being crazy," as Col. Gilliam 
and many others have, already pronounced. They could 
not, without being moved by blind, unjust, and too 
violent religious prejudices. 



APPENDIX. 



Extracts from Hiaes' History of OrogOB. 



The following extracts from Kev. Gustavus Hineg' 
History of Oregon^ will no doubt prove interesting to 
every reader who desires to learn the truth of history, 
forming as they do, a chain of evidence which shows 
conclusively the remote causes which led to the mas- 
sacre at Wailatpu. It will be borne in mind that the 
events detailed in the following extracts, occurred from 
1842 to 184G-7, and among Indians with whom Catholic 
missionaries had never resided. The Catholic missions 
among the Indians west of the Eocky Mountains, were 
first established in 1840, by Father Peter de Smet, S. J., 
among the Flathead and Pen de Orielles tribes, who had 
sent deputations to the missionary establishment, at St. 
Louis, Missouri, years before, soliciting the presence of 
the "black gowns" amongst them. The camps of these 
Indians were located many hundred miles from the Cay- 
use and other tribes of malcontents mentioned hereafter, 
and with whom the Pen de Orielles and Flatheads had no 
communication whatever. 

It has been generally remarked by Indian agents and 
other Federal officials, that the Indians among whom the 
Catholic missionaries were located, have invariably 
proved more moral, more susceptible of civilization, and 
more friendly towards the whites than those Indians 
whose spiritual welfare was under the control of non< 



96 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

Catholic teachers. This is an established fact, verified 
by the national records, and is easily explained, inas- 
much as the missionaries of the Catholic Church devote 
themselves solely to the great work of their spiritual 
calling, whilst it not unfreqaently happens that the mis- 
sionaries of many other denomination^ make their re- 
ligious profession secondtiry to their own affluence and 
aggr a n d i z e m e n t. 

With these remarks VvC append the extracts above al- 
luded to, asking for them a careful perusal and candid 
consideration : 



EXTR A.CTS. 

April 14 This settlement has been thrown into a 
panic by intelligence which has just been received from 
the upper country, concerning the hostile intentions of 
the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Walla Walla Indians. It 
appears that they have again threatened the destruction, 
of the whites. Some time in October last,* Indian re- 
port said that these tribes were coming down to kill off 
the Boston people, meaning those from the United States. 
This intelligence produced considerable excitement at 
the time, and induced the sub-agent of Indian Affairs to 
go directl}^ to the upper country and ascertain the truth 
of the report, and if possible settle all matters of diffi- 
culty. On arriving among the Indians, he ascertained 
that the report was not without foundation; but entered 
into such arrangements with them as appeared to give 
satisfaction. Thomas McKay contributed much to allay 
the excitement among them, and in connexion with the 
sub-agent, induced the ISTez Perces to adopt a code of 
laws, and appoint a head chief and inferior chiefs, 
sufficient to carry the laws into execution. It had been 
the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company to destroy the 
chieftainship, cut the different tribes into smaller clans, 

*1842 — Five years before the massacre at Wailatpu. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 97 

and divide their interests as far as possible so as ta 
weaken them, and render them incapable of injuring the 
whites, by preventing them from acting in concert. But 
the sub-agent adopted a diiferent policy. The individ- 
ual appointed to a high chieftainship over the Nez Per- 
cefe, Avas one ElUs, as he was called by the English, who^ 
having spent several years in the settlement an the Red 
river, east of the mountains, had, with a smattering of 
the English language, acquired a high sense of his own 
importance ; and consequently, after he was appointed 
chief, pursued a very haughty and overbearing course. 
The fulfillment of the laws which the agent recommend- 
ed for their adoption, was required by Ellis with the 
utmost rigor. Individuals were severely punished for 
crimes, which, from time immemorial, had been com- 
mitted by the people with impunity. This occasioned 
suspicions in the minds of the Indians generally, that 
the whites designed the ultimate subjugation of their 
tribes. They saw in the laws they had adopted, a deep- 
laid scheme of the whites to destroy them, and take 
possession of their country. The arrival of a large 
party of emigrants about this time, and the sudden de-. 
parture of Dr. Whitman to the United States, with the 
avowed intention of bringing back with him as many as 
he could enlist for Oregon, served to hasten them to the 
above conclusion. That a great excitement existed 
among the Indians in the interior, and that they designed 
to make war upon the settlement, was only known to 
the whites through the medium of vague report, until a 
letter was received from H. K. W. Perkins, at the 
Dalles, in which he informed us that the Wascopam and 
Walla Walla Indians, had communicated to him in sub- 
stance the following information : that the Indians are 
very much exasperated against the whites in consequence 
of so many of the latter coming into the country, to de- 
stroy their game, and take away their lands; that the 
Nez Perces dispatched one of their chiefs last winter on 
snow shoes, to visit the Indians in the buffalo country 
east of Fort Hall, for the purpose of exciting them to 
cut off the party that it is expected Dr. Whitman will 
bring back with him to settle the Nez Perce country; 
that the Indians are endeavoring to form a general coali- 

9 « 



98 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE, 

tioii for the purpose of destroying all the Boston people ; 
that it is not good to kill a part of them and leave the 
rest, hut that every one of them must he destroyed. This 
information produced a great excitement throughout the 
community, and almost every man had a plan of his own 
by which to avert the impending storm. In the estima- 
tion of some the Indians were to be upon us immediately, 
and it was unsafe to retire at night for fear the settle* 
ment v/ould be attacked before morning. The plan of 
the agent wias to induce men to pledge themselves, under 
the forfeiture of one hundred dollars in case of delin- 
quency, to keep constantl}^ on hand, and ready for use, 
either a good musket or a rifle, and one hundred charges 
of ammunition, and to hold themselves in readiness to 
go at the call of the agent to any part of the country, 
not to exceed two days travel, for the purpose of defend-^ 
ing the settlement, and repelling any savage invaders. 
This plan pleased some of the people, and they put 
down their names -, but many were much dissatisfied 
with it, and as we had no authority, no law, no order, 
for the time being, in the country, it was impossible, to 
tell what would be the result, if the Indians should at- 
tempt to carry their threats into execution. * =f^ * * 

Eeport says, furthermore, that the Klikitat Indians 
are collecting together back of the TuaUty plains, but 
for what purpose is not known. The people on the 
plains, consisting of about thirty families, are quite 
alarmed. There is also a move among the Calapooahs, 
Shoefon, one of the principal men of the tribe, left this 
place a few days ago, and crossed the Willamette river 
declaring that he would never return until he came with 
a band of men to drive off the Boston people. He was - 
very much offended because some of his people were 
seized and flogged, through the influence of Dr. White, 
for having stolen horses from some of the missionaries, 
and flour from the mission mill. His influence is not 
very extensive among the Indians, or we miglit have 
much to fear. The colony is indeed in a most defence- 
less condition ; two hundred Indians, divided into four 
bands, might destroy the settlement in one night. * * * 

On the 20th of April, 1843, a letter was received in the 
settlement, written by IJ, B. Brewer, at the Dalles, which 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 99 

brings the latest intelligence from the infected region. 
This letter states that the Indians in the interior talk 
much of war, and Mr. Brewer urges Dr. White to come 
up ^yithout delay, and endeavor to allay the exciternent. 
He does not inform us that the Indians design any evil 
to^vard the wdiites, but says that the war ,is to be 
betw^een themselves, but that the Boston people have 
much to tear. As the Doctor, in his visit to the interior 
last October, left an appointment to meet the Walla 
Walla Indians and the Cayuses, in their own country, 
on the 10th of May, and believing that a great share of 
the excitement originated in a misunderstanding of the 
Indians, he came to the conclusion at all hazards to go 
amorfg them. At the solicitation of the agent, I deter- 
mined to accompany him on the expedition. 

The great complaint of the Indians w^as that the Bos- 
ton peoj)le designed to take away their lands, ana 
reduce them to 8laver3^ This they had inferred from 
what Dr. White had told them in his previous visit; and 
this misunderstanding of tlie Indians had not only pro- 
duced a great excitement among them, but had occa- 
sioned considerable trouble betwixt them and the mis- 
sionaries and other wdiites in the upper country, as well 
as influencing them to threaten the destruction of all the 
American people. Iridividuals had come down from 
Fort Walla Walla to Vancouver, bringing information of 
the excited stale of things among the Indians, and giv- 
ing out that' it would be extremely dangerous for Dr. 
White to go up to meet his engagements, ^k * * * 

Next morning, at the rising of the sun, we left oiir 
attendants with tlie pack animals, and proceeded on 
ahead, determined, if possible, to reach the mission sta- 
tion at Waialatpu, on the Walla Walla river, the same 
day. Passed Ft)rt Walla Walla at twelve, and arrived 
at Dr. Whitman's at five, having traveled fittv miles 
since we mounted in the morning. We were received 
with great cordiality by Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Giger, 
Dr. Whitman being absent on a tour to the United 
States. They had heard we w^ere coming, and were 
looking for us with great anxiety. We soon learned 
that the reports in the lower country about war, that 
bad produced such an excitement, were not without 



100 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

foundation : the Cayuse Indians, among wliom this 
mission is established, had freely communicated to Mi'. 
Giger, whom they esteemed as their friend, all they 
knew concerning it. 

When the Indians were first told that the Americans 
were designing to subjugate them, and take away their 
lands, the young chiefs of the Cayuse tribe were in 
favor of proceeding immediatcl}^ to hostilities. They 
were for raising a large war party, and, rushing directly 
down to the Willamette settlement, cut off the inhabit- 
ants at a blow. The old chiefs were of a different 
opinion; they suggested more cautious measures. Tak- 
ing into consideration the difficult}", at that season of 
the year, of marching a large party the distance of three 
or four hundred miles through a wide range of moun- 
tains, covered with snow, they advised all the Indians 
to wait until they should obtain more information con- 
cerning ihe designs of the Americans. They also 
thought that it would not be wisdom in them, in any 
case, to commence an offensive war, but to prepare 
themselves for a vigorous defence against any attack. 
TheyJrequently remarked to Mr. Giger, that the}' did 
not wish to go to war, but if the Americans came to 
take away their lands, and bring them into a state of 
vassalage, they would fight so long as they had a di'op 
of blood to shed. They said they had received their 
iufoi'mation concerning the designs of the Americans 
from Baptiste Dorio. This individual, wlfo is a half- 
breed, son of Madame Dorio, the heroine of Washington 
Lving's Astoria, understands the Nez Perce languaj^e 
well, and had given the Cay uses the information that 
had alarmed ,them. Mr. Giger endeavored to induce 
them to prepare, early in the spring, to cultivate the 
ground as they did the year before, but they refused to 
do anything, saying that Baptiste Dorio had told them 
that it would be of no consequence; that the whites 
would come in the summer, and kill them all off, and 
destroy their plantations. 

After Dorio had told them this story, they sent a 
Walla Walla chief, called Yellow Serpent, to Vancouver, 
to learn from Doctor McLaughlin the facts in the case. 
Yellow Serpent returned and told the Cayuses that Dr. 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 101 

McLaughlin said he had nothing to do in a war with the 
Indians; that he did not believe the Americans desigried 
to attack them, and'that, if the Americans did go to war 
with the Indians, the Hudson's Bay Company would 
not assist them. After they got this information from 
the Mas ( great) Doctor, the Indians became more calm; 
many of them went to cultivating the ground as for- 
merly, and a large number of little patches had been 
planted and sown, before we arrived at the station. 

The Cay uses were principally encamped along the 
base of the Blue Mountains, a few miles east of Dr. 
Whitman's house; and after we had obtained all the 
information we could from Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Gi- 
ger, concerning the state of things among them, we sent 
them word that we had come, and desired to see them. 
We also sent the chiefs word that we desired them to 
make arrangements to have all their people meet us at 
the mission on the following Friday, to have a talk. 

The chiefs came to see us at Dr. Whitman's, and told 
the stor}^ of their grievances, and said that the}^ desired 
to have the difficulty settled. They said it would not be 
convenient for the people to come, together so soon as 
we desired, as man}- of them were off among the moun- 
tains, hunting elk. As they must be informed of the 
meeting, it would be several days before the, people 
could get together. * * * * 

Tuesday, 23d. The chiefs and principal men of both 
tribes came together at Dr. Whitman's to hear what we 
had to say. They were called to order by Tauitau, 
who by this time had got over his excitement, and then 
was placed before them the object of our visit. Among 
other things they were told that much had been said 
about war, and we bad come to assure them that they 
had nothing to fear from that quarter; that the Presi- 
dent of the United .States had not sent the Doctor to 
their country, to make war upon them, but to enter into 
arrangements with them to regulate t.heir intercourse 
with the white people. We were not there to catch 
them in a trap as a man would catch a beaver, but to do 
them good; and if they would lay aside their former 
practices and prejudices, stop their quarrels, cultivate 
their lands, and receive good laws, they might become a 



102 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

great and a happy people; that in order to do this, they 
muHt be united, for they w©re but few in comparison to 
the whites; and if they were not all of one heart, they 
would be able to accomplish nothing; that the chiefs 
should set the example and love each otlier, and not get 
proud and haughty-, but consider the people as their 
brothers and their children, and labor to do them good; 
that the people should be obedient, and in their morning 
and evening pra3'ers they should remember their chiefs. 

Liberty was then given for the chiefs to speak, and 
Ellis remarked that it would not be proper for the Nez 
Perce chiefs to speak until the Cayuse people should 
receive the laws. The Cayuse chiefs replied, " If 3'ou 
want us to receive the laws, bring them forward and let 
us see them, as we cannot take them unless we know 
what they are." 

A speech was then delivered to the young men to im- 
press them favorably with regard to the laws. They 
were told that they would soon take the places of the 
old men, and thej^ should be willing to act for the good 
of the people ; that they should not go here and there 
and spread false reports about war; and that this had 
been the cause of all the difficulty and excitement which 
had prevailed among them during the past winter. 

The laws were then read, first in English, and then in 
the Nez Perce. 

Yellow Serpent then rose and said : " 1 have a mes- 
sage to you. Where are these laws from ? Are they 
from God or from the earth ? I would that you* might 
say, they were from God. But I think they are from 
the earth, because, from what I know of white men, 
they do not honor these laws. 

In answer to this, the people were informed that the 
laws were recognized by God, and imposed on men in 
all civilized countries. Yellow Serpent was pleased 
with the explanation, and said that it was according to 
the instructions he had received from others, and he w^as 
very glad to learn that it was so, because many of his 
people had been angry with him when he had whipped 
them for crime, and had told him that God would send 
him to hell for it, and he was glad to know that it was 
pleasing to God." 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 103 

felaukaikt, a Cayiise chief, rose and said : " What do 
ou read the laws for before we take them ? Wo do 
not take the laws because Tauitau saj^s so. He is a 
Catholic, and as a people we do not follow his worship." 
Dr. White replied that this did not make any difference 
about law ; that the people in the States had different 
modes of worship, yet all had one law. 

Then a chief, called the Prince, arose and said : " I 
understand you gave us liberty to examine every law — 
all the words and lines — and as questions are asked 
about jt, we should get a better understanding of it. 
The people of this country have but one mind about it. 
I have something to say, but perhaps the people will 
dispute me. As a body, we have not had an opportunity 
to consult, therefore you come to us as in a wind, and 
speak to us as to the air, as we have no point, and we' 
cannot speak because we have no point before us. The 
business before us is whole, like a bod}^ we, have not 
dissected it. And perhaps you will say that it is out of 
place for me to speak, because I am not a great chief. 
Once I had influence, but now I have but little." 

He was about to sit down, but was told to go on. 
He then said — " When the whites first came among us, 
we had no cattle, they have given us none; what we 
have now got we have obtained by an exchange of 
property. A long time ago Lewis and Clark came to 
this country, and I want to know what they said about 
us. Did they say that they found friends or enemies 
here ?" Being told that they spoke well of the Indians, 
the Prince said, " that is a reason why the whites should 
unite with us, and all become one people. Those who 
have been here before 5^ou, have left us no memorial of 
their kindness, by giving us presents. We speak by 
way of favor. If you have any benefit to bestow, we 
will then speak more freely. One thing that we can 
speak about is cattle, and the reason why we cannot 
speak out now is because we have not the thing before 
us. My people are poor and blind, and we must have 
something tangible. Other chiefs have bewildered ino 
since they came; yet I am from an honorable stock. 
Promises which have been made to me and m}' fathers, 
have not been fulfilled, and I am made miserable; but il^ 



104 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. ' \ 

will not answer for me to speak out, for my people do 
not consider me as their chief One thini^ more; 3^ou 
have reminded me of what was promised me sometimt^ 
ago, and I am inclined to follow on and see; though 1 
have been giving my beaver to the whites, and have 
received many promises, and have always been disap- 
pointed. I want to know what you are going to do." 

Illutin, or Big Belly, then arose and said, that the 
old men were wearied with the wickedness of the young 
men. That if he was alone, he could say yes at once to 
the laws, and that the reason why the young men did 
not feel as he felt was because thej^- had stolen property 
in their hands, and the laws condemned stealing. But 
he assured them that the laws were calculated to do 
them good, and not evil. 

But this did not satisfy the Prince. He desired that 
the good which it was proposed to do them by adopting 
the laws, might be put io a tangible form before them. 
He said that it had been a long lime since the countr}'' 
had been discovered by whites, and that ever since that 
time, people had been coming along, and promising to 
do them good ; but they had all passed by and left no 
blessing behind them. That the Hudson's Bay Company 
bad persuaded them to continue with them, and not go 
atter the Americans; that if the Americans designed to 
do them good why did they not bring goods with them 
to leave with the Indians ? that they were fools to listen 
to what the Yankees had to say; that they would only 
talk, but the company would both talk and give them 
presents. ?(=*** 

About this time (1843) the Indians became quite trouble- 
some, in various parts of the country. AtWailatpu, on the 
Walla Walla river, where a mission station had be.m 
established by Dr. Marcus Whitman, they took advan- 
tage of the Doctor's absence and broke into the house, 
in the dead of the night, and even in the bed-chamber 
of Mrs. Whitman, who, with much difficulty, escaped 
out of their hands. At Lapwai, on Clear Water river, 
where the Eev. Mr. Spalding was conducting a mission 
atation, they committed some outrages; also, at the 
Falls of the Willamette river. A number of individuals 
of Dr. White's party, who had separated themselves 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 105 

from the main company, were robbed of their effecta 
wliile passini^ down the Columbia river. 

The Nez Perces and Cayuses, two of the most power- 
ful tribes in the country, had talked much of making 
w^ar upon the American settlement on the Willamette 
river. These things, with many others of more or les» 
importance, produced a high degree of excitement, and 
served to arouse the people again to the subject of en- 
tering into some measures by which their mutual pro- 
tection micjbt be secured. * :?: * h< 



Letter of Sir James Douglas. 

The follovving letter from Sir James Douglas, chief 
Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, to S. N. Castle, 
Esq., was first published in the Friend, at Honlulu,S. I., 
where the gentlman resided to whom it was addressed. 
It relates the massacre of Dr. Whitman and other mis- 
sionaries in a truthful manner, and gives, as one of the 
causes for their murder, the fact alread}" ])atent to the 
reader who has perused the foregoing pages, viz : The 
prejudices existing in the minds of the Cayuse Indians 
against Doctor Whitman, "tor not exerting his supposed 
supernatural powers in saving their lives." No man 
then residing on this coast had better opportunities for 
judging the character of the Cayuse Indians, than Mr. 
Douglas, and no man possessed greater facilities for pro- 
curing correct information relative to the causes — both 
remote and immediate — which led to the massacre at 
Wailatpu. Hence the letter of Mr. Douglas is entitled 
to more than ordinary ^consideration, and his conclusions 
will be found to coincide exactlj' with those of other dis- 
interested witnesses, clearly exonerating the Catholic 
missionaries from any shadow of culpability and placing 
the responsibility of the calamity where it properly be- 
longs : 



106 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

Fort Yancouver, 9tb Dec, 1847. 
S. W. Castle, Esq. — Sir : It is with feelings indescrib- 
ably painful, that I hasten to communicate to you, for 
the information of the Board of Missions, intelligence of 
a disastrous event which lately occurred at the mission- 
ary stations of Wailatpu. Our estimable friend. Dr. 
Whitman, his amiable and accomplished lady, and nine 
other men and j^ouths in the mission employ, were mur- 
dered on the 29th ult., by the Cay use Indians, with cir- 
oumstancL^s of the most revolting cruelty. The lives of 
the wonicu and children with the exception of the la- 
mented lady already named, were spared. The mis- 
sion being situated in the Cayuse country, they had a 
peculiar interest in prorecting it from harm, in gratitude 
for past favors and for the blessings of religious instruc- 
tions so assiduously dispensed to them and to their fam- 
ilies, yet those very people the objects of so much solici- 
tude, were alone concerned in effecting the destruction of 
an establishment founded solely for their benefit. The 
Cayuse are the most treacherous and intractable of all 
the Indian tribes in this country, and had on many for- 
mer occasions alarmed the inmates of the missiort by 
their tumultuous proceedings and ferocious threats; but 
unfortunately^ these evidences of a brutal disposition 
were disregarded by their admirable pastor, and served 
onlj^ to arm him with a firmer resolution to do them 
good. He hoped that time and instruction would pro- 
duce a change of mind — a better state of feeling towards 
the mission; and he might have lived to see his hopes re- 
iilized had not the measles and dysentery, following in 
the train of immigrants from the United States, made 
frightful ravages this year in the upper country, many 
Indians have been cai-ried off through the violence of the 
disease and others through their own inprudence. The 
Cayuse Indians of AYailatpu being sufferers in this gen- 
eral calamity, were incensed against Dr. Whitman for 
not exerting his supposed supernatural powers in saving 
their lives. The}' carried this absurdity beyond that 
point of folly. Their superstitous minds became pos- 
sessed with the horrible suspicion that he was giving 
poison to the sick instead of wholesome medicines with 
the view of working the destruction of the tribe, their 



THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 107 

former cruelty probably adding strength to this suspic- 
ion. Still some of the more reflecting had confidence in 
Dr. Whitman's integrity, and it was agreed to test the 
effects of the medicine he had furnished on three of their 
people, one of whom was said to be in perfect health. 

They unfortunately died, and from that moment it was 
resolved to destroy the Mission. It was immediately af- 
ter burying the remains of these three persons that they 
repaired to the mission and murdered every man found 
there. 

This happened about 2 o'clock in the afternoon ; the 
Indians arrived at the mission one after another with 
their arms hid under their blankets. The doctor was at 
school with the children, the others were cutting up an 
ox they had just killed. 

When the Indians saw they were numerous enough to 
effect their object, they fell u^^on the poor victims, some 
with guns and others with hatchets, and their blood was 
soon streaming on all sides. Some of the Indians turned 
their attention towards the doctor ; he received a pistoi 
shot in the breast from one, and a blow on the head with 
a hatchet from another. He had still strength enough 
remaining to reach a sofa, where he threv/ himself down 
and expired. Mrs. Whitman was dragged from the gar- 
ret, and mercilesslj^ butchered at the door. Mr. Eogere 
was shot after his life had been granted to him; the wo- 
men and children were also goiag to be murdered, when 
a voice was raised to ask for mercy in favor of those 
whom they thought innocent, and their lives were 
spared. It is reported that a kind of deposition made 
by a Mr, Bogers increased the fury of this savage mob, 
Mr. Eogers was seized, was made to sit down, and then 
told that his life would be spared if he made a'fiill dis- 
covery of Dr. Whitman's supposed treachery. That 
person then told the Indians that the Doctor intended to 
poison them, that one night, when Mr. Spalding was at 
Waiiatpu, he heard them say that the Indians ought to 
be poisoned, in order that the Americans might take pos- 
session of their lands — that the Doctor wished to poison 
them all at once, but that Mr. Spalding advised him to 
do it gradually. Mr. Eogers, after this deposition, was 
spared, but an Indian^ who was not present, having seen 



108 THE WHITMAN MASSACRE. 

him, fired at and killed bim. An American made a simi- 
lar deposition, adding that Mrs. W. was an accomplice, 
and she deserved death as well as her husband. It ap- 
pears that he concluded by saying that he would take 
the side of the Indians, and that he detested the Ameri- 
cans. An Indian then put a pistol into his hand, and said 
to him, if you tell the truth, you must prove it by shoot- 
ing that young American ; and this wretched apostate 
from his country fired upon the young man shown to 
him, and laid him dead at his feet. It was upon the evi- 
dence of that American that Mrs. Whitman was murder- 
ed, or she might have shared in the mercy extended to 
the other females and children. 

Such are the details as far as known of that disastrous 
•event and the causes which led to it. Mr. Eoger's re- 
ported deposition, if correct is unworthy of belief, hav- 
ing been drawn from him by the fear of instant death. 
The other American who shed the blood of his friend, 
must be a villain of the darkest dye, and ought to suffer 
for his aggravated crime. 

On the 7th inst., Mr. Ogdcn proceeded towards Walla 
Walla with a strong party of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
panj-'s servants to endeavor to prevent further evil. 

Accompanying you will rei^eive a copy of a letter 
which I addressed to Governor Abernethy immediately 
after the arrival of the melancholy intelligence, at this 
place. All that can be collected will be considered im- 
portant by the friends of Doctor and Mrs. Whitman in 
the United States, who will be anxious to learn every 
particular concerning their tragic fate. 

It will be a satisfaction for them to know that these 
•eminent servants of God were faithful in their lives, 
though we have to deplore the melancholy circumstances 
which .accompanied their departure from this world of 
trial, 

I remain, sir, 

Your very ob't. servant, 

James Douglas, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







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